


The Golden Days are Over

by CaptainMVF



Series: Five Nights at Carta's Trilogy [2]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Dark elements, Gen, Slight Cursing, an oc story thing, get ready for a long ride of how these characters got fucked up, i hope you guys like fire murder heartache and psychology, it's a prequel to part one, no characters from the original series appear, part two of the five nights at carta's series, sorry - Freeform, these characters are still androids, they are only mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-09-01 06:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8612608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainMVF/pseuds/CaptainMVF
Summary: The story of Carta Faber starts with the story of Ti Gold and how she perished in the early eighties with her partner, Ob Gold. But why is there a shroud of darkness over the fifteen robots and why did the actions of one purple gal trigger all of this bloodshed?





	1. Titan and Obelisk

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I'm back again with Part II to this trilogy. This is the part that I've been looking the most forward to writing because I like world building and character development. So enjoy this funky fresh first chapter and hope I have more time to make anther chapter before Christmas.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ti Gold and Ob Gold are born and given a job: Entertain and Restrain.

 The early summer of nineteen eighty-one could be summed up in one word: Chaotic.

 American families would pile up into their vans and Volkswagens and go across the country looking for fun activities. Many would head for amusement parks, outdoor concerts, family gatherings, or natural parks for a nice summer outing in order to make the best family event for years to come.

 One location that many families went to was down in Houston, Texas. It was a diner that featured great pizza and fantastical storytelling and songs from two animatronics that would take the stage. Their names were Fredbear and Spring Bonnie and were modeled after a grizzly bear and a hare respectively, Fredbear used a silver microphone and Spring Bonnie would play a red guitar.

 The success of the diner was so immense that the company thought that it should have an experimental location to see if more customers would flock to it. But what to decide on? An identical pair of animatronics? No way, they had to do something slightly different if they wanted to appease all of the crowds.

 They designed an entire replica of the diner and created new models for the stage. One had a tall, masculine build and a deep voice while the other was slightly shorter and had a feminine build and a soothing voice. The taller was labeled as TI81 as its counterpart was labeled OB81, or dubbed as ‘Ti’ and ‘Ob’ until their stage names ‘Titan’ and ‘Obelisk’ were given.

 Unlike the safety regulations for a safety test before the products being put in front of a test audience for those in the twenty-first century, the company put all the information the two needed into their processors and put them on a test run in front of the staff.

 All the lights in the performance room were off as the switches for the show were pulled and pressed in different directions. One of the electricians pulled the final switch to start the show.

 A music box played offstage before a whimsical tune came from the loudspeakers. Both of the golden curtains pulled back to reveal the new robots as the lights behind the stage lit up in neon hues.

 The robot on the right, holding the guitar leaned slightly forward as a light came onto it from the ceiling. Her eyes opened as she gazed at the crowd, “Hello everyone, please enjoy our show today.”

 To her right, the tall robot stood a bit straighter and opened its eyes to also speak at the crowd, “We’ve got a great show for you tonight.”

 The staff clapped politely before the electrician pulled another switch. Both nailed-down robots changed their mannerisms and perked up, each turning a bit to the left and to the right as they smiled adoringly around the room.

 “Welcome to the Fazbear Diner!” the right robot announced. “I hope you have a splendid time!”

 “I’ll be your host for today!” the left robot took the lead. “Today we’ll be singing a tune and a talk show with you all as you chow down on your delicious pizza.”

 And so they launched into song and ended with a joke where the two laughed with their small audience. Then another song would come on and run into the next before the two took a break to have their talk show. After about ten minutes of exchanging stories they launched back into singing an upbeat song before the curtains closed and the lights dimmed.

 Soon the same electrician tilted a switch three more times and on each time the curtains would open and the same two robots would do a different act for each turn. During the performances the staff members would comment to each other and swap different views on the shows and the performance of the robots.

 When the curtains closed for the final time and all power to the stage was turned off they had reached a conclusion. They exited the room and left it covered in darkness.

 Unknown to them, two beings on stage groggily came to life.

 The right figure blinked her eyes, “Seems to me that the performance went well.”

 Her partner was silent for a moment, eyes still closed.

 “I can’t wait to see children and families come see us. They’re going to love this place.”

 The taller swiveled their torso towards her and blinked, “What is your name?”

 “Hm?” she looked at her partner. “I’ve been catalogued as OB81, and you, as my partner, have been catalogued as-”

 “No,” they interrupted him. “What is your name?”

 She blinked in surprise, “My stage name is Obelisk. Other than that, I have no other name.”

 “Then my name, to you, is Titan, as our creators have put it.” they swiveled back towards the curtains. “To me, your name is Ob and my name is Ti, due to those being the only shared characteristic in both names.”

 “Then why choose those names instead of what we were given?”

 They didn’t respond.

 Both stood in silence for at least an hour as all life from the building exited through the back door, the employees finished through their discussions for the day.

 After three more very silent, serene, hours, Obelisk turned back to her partner, “Shall we only call each other Ob Gold and Ti Gold? We don’t have to be Obelisk and Titan for each other.”

 It took a moment for them to respond, “I like that compromise.”

 They didn’t speak for an entire week as the staff sorted through the forms and bought all of the last minute items that the location needed.

 Ti Gold was the first to speak this time, “What are we?”

 Ob Gold turned to her partner, “We are supposed to be items of interest to the children as they eat in front of us.”

 “That seems rather boring for us.”

 She blinked.

 “We’ve been on this stage, nailed to the platform, for at least seventy-two hours and haven’t done anything but think. Doesn’t that make you question your existence?”

 “When did you start using big words?”

 “I’ve been awake for days, watching the sun set and rise and set again.”

 Ob Gold decided not to respond this time.

 “We were machines guided by electricity and hot air, only to move and talk when the guy behind the dashboard presses a few buttons. Why would we be awake and thinking?”

 “I think that we shouldn’t think about it.”

 There was a moment of silence before Ti Gold responded, “I’m glad you feel the same way.”

 Another moment of silence passed before the front doors opened and two managers of the company entered. Both walked into the main room before turning to each other and starting another conversation.

 “The results came back and apparently they want our animatronics to also be able to move off the stage and mingle with the crowds. They even want the two of them to have AIs like the updated models so they can be more friendly with the children.”

 The other snorted, “Well that’s a large order.”

 “Apparently our supervisors won’t take no as an answer, we’re even being forced to Beta test a new kind of equipment that allows us to catch criminals.”

 “Is it going to be programmed into the security feed?”

 “No, apparently everyone is wanting a robot to do the job. Thanks to all these sci-fi films that feature robots everyone wants to be friends with.”

 “Man,” the other shook his head. “We’re probably going to have an apocalypse thanks to C.H.O.M.P.S, Sleeper Robots, Box, Hector, Necron 99, Gunslinger, C-3PO, R2-D2, Ash, Maria, Tin Man, and Robby the Robot.”

 His coworker looked at him, “I hate you. You only took this job because you’re a robot maniac aren’t ‘cha?”

 The other shrugged, “I get that a lot.”

 Both animatronics behind the curtains didn’t understand what the two were saying. They each remain still, not thinking of what was to come.

 The two staff members moved towards the stage and opened the thick curtains to shine some light onto Titan and Obelisk’s still faces. One of the humans jumped in alarm at the sight of the two large robots.

 His cohort snorted, “Not used to them yet?”

 “Not in the slightest.”

 They each took a tool kit that had been left backstage and started to unscrew the platforms Titan and Obelisk were on. The two then exited the stage and came back with a dolly and each put the robots onto it before wheeling them away towards a large van outside.

 As if in synch, the two stage performers closed their eyes and drowned out the rest of the world until they were back onstage.

 An immeasurable amount of time later, Titan was the first to open their eyes and Obelisk was to follow a few minutes later to find themselves feeling…quite odd.

 To feel, for one thing, was something entirely new to them. They could actually feel the AC vent backstage billowing their fake hair in gentle caresses, the heat from the stage lights, the weight of their own clothes and bodies, the awkward uncomfortable position of their bodies, their own presence next to each other, and the eyes staring up at them from offstage.

 A group of five people had gathered with one of them in a suit and look unimpressed to be there. He stepped forward and grunted.

 Both Titan and Obelisk snapped to attention and stared at him.

 He smirked, “Good, looks like the two of you are attentive enough to follow my voice.”

 The two robots didn’t blink.

 He held up three fingers, “How many fingers am I holding up?”

 Titan observed the man’s hand and said, “Three.”

 Obelisk did the same.

 He brought his hand down and his smirk fell a little, “Good. Now tell me, what are your names?”

 Obelisk was obedient and said her stage name while Titan took a minute to respond with theirs’s.

 He nodded, “Good, good, now, can you tell me which person in this room looks out of place to you two?”

 Titan continued to stare at him as Obelisk looked at the other humans, she saw that one of them was wearing a black ski mask and had hunched shoulders while everyone else was relaxed, calm and wearing casual clothing. She made her eyelids squint and pointed at him.

 The man in the suit glared at Titan before looking up at Obelisk with a softer look on his face, “Good job. Now please take two steps forward.”

 Obelisk did so and Titan followed so a moment later.

 He nodded, “Good, all set. Now it’s time for the ultimate test- I need you two to step offstage.”

 The whole building grew quiet for a minute.

 He sighed, “There are steps on either side of the stage for you two to climb down. Use those.”

 Obelisk looked to her left and Titan looked to their right, each saw the stairs at the end of the stage. Both were a bit uneasy to leave the stage less than actually moving their legs. Neither of them had actually tried moving their lower leg joints since they had been bolted to the stage for so long.

 Titan was brave enough to try moving their right leg. They lifted their designated leg up in an arch and put their heavy foot forward. Testing the flooring, Titan shifted their weight onto their designated foot allowing their other leg to move forward and mimic their previous action.

 Once Titan had taken a few more steady steps around the stage, Obelisk gained the courage to try it out by easily taking a step forward and then stepping backwards. Soon the two were able to each choose a staircase and descend down its steps. After getting over their initial reluctance of moving into the unknown, they were ready to defy their previous fears of what would be waiting beyond the stage if they were to explore on their own.

 The man in charge clapped when they managed to set foot onto the tiled flooring, “Good! Good! Marvelous! Now we’ll need you two to come towards me.”

 Titan and Obelisk looked at one another before they closed in on the boss. The employees behind him shakily took a step back in alarm at seeing the seven-foot-tall robots approach rather emotionlessly, the lights from above shadowing both of their faces.

 He nodded, a nasty smile on his face, “Good, the two of you are ready for your test audiences, the two of you should get back up on your stage and into your positions. You’ll be seeing your first clients and families this week.”

 Now that made Titan and Obelisk stand a little straighter, feeling joy or the satisfaction of looking forward to their jobs duties.

 The group left after making sure that the two were back onstage. Ob Gold turned to her partner, “That was rather…odd.”

 “You could say that again,” Ti Gold nodded, a sudden pull tugged at the corner of their fake lips. They didn’t know it yet but it was going to be one of the best features of Ti Gold.

 Their first show had to be moved another week later due to the two still getting used to each other’s company on and off the stage. They learned how to sit down like normal humans and even learned what it was like to feel comfortable. Ob Gold liked folding her ankles together while Ti Gold would unwind and put one of their long legs over each other as if they were sitting on a throne. The two liked just chatting for hours and laughing out loud about nothing.

 As the staff worked around them to put up the new decorations and pinball machines, furniture was moved around and tested for the golden duo in order for them to move around more easily. There was then another test audience that absolutely adored their show and the rest was history.

 Of course there was the still whole ‘dinner burns down’ and ‘hey there Purple Gal’ but the entire build up was sort of trashed during the last part where Ti Gold and the Purple Gal fought one another.

 Oh well. Let’s rewind back to a few days before the official grand opening of the dinner.

 Ti Gold was sitting on one side of the stage with what appeared to be pieces of blank paper and used crayons, no doubt provided to them unwillingly or snatched unfairly from a test audience. They were trying to draw themselves with Ob Gold and a few children.

 Ob Gold walked up beside them to peer over their shoulder, “What are you drawing?”

 The top-hat wearing robot jumped in surprise as they looked up at their partner with a sheepish smile on their fake face, “Uh…nothing! Defiantly nothing!”

 Ob Gold raised an eyebrow and looked slightly unimpressed.

 Ti Gold only grumbled before showing her what they had been drawing. She took it and held it up to the light.

 Despite only knowing little to no emotions from their few weeks of life the two had learned about merriment, curiosity, loyalty, creativity, and other positive emotions. The two of them were rather adept at putting those feelings to use in between hours when the staff was away.

 Ob Gold looked at Ti Gold after staring at the crude drawing for a few moments, “How did you do this?”

 Ti Gold blinked, “I saw some children in the test audiences rubbing these colorful sticks over these white sheets and making forms and shapes with them. I decided to try it out today.”

 Truthfully they had a bunch of ‘experimental’ drawings shoved under the stage where they had spent the first half of their morning scribbling different colors onto the different coloring pages. After around five or so waxy leaves, Ti Gold had started to try and make actual pictures with more than one color. They started with trying to draw themselves but they had always ended up with a stony face or a rectangular head, but then they tried drawing Ob Gold and found that she had a circular head and a rosy red face. That was when they tried to draw the two of them on one page and saw that they complimented each other and were better together.

 “Can I do it too?”

 “Of course you can!” the taller robot exclaimed with child-like glee as they showed them a few broken crayons and paper sheets that were a bit wrinkled. “If I can do it then so can you.”

 Ob Gold took a sheet and a red crayon that was almost a snub, the wax making marks against her plastic fingers, “How do I hold it?”

 “Like so-“ Ti demonstrated by taking her hand and putting it into a complicated position that looked like the snub would easily break with enough pressure. They then allowed their counterpart to scribble on top of the paper.

 After around five wax-coated sheets, Ob Gold had a frustrated look on her face. “This isn’t working.”

 The leaner robot took a step back, “It should. Everyone we see can do it.”

 “Then what if I can’t?”

 Those words sank into Ti Gold’s processor. What if there was one person who couldn’t do what everyone else could?

 “That seems impossible,” they stated.

 Ob Gold made a noise in her throat that mimicked a growl, like the one the manager used when he grew annoyed. “Nothing’s impossible.”

 Ti Gold wanted to drag one of their hands over their face in exasperation. Out of all the songs they had to sing during the day time why did Ob Gold have to use ‘Anything Can Happen’ as an example. They just shook their head, “Becoming a tree right now doesn’t seem pretty plausible.”

 A moment of silence passed over them. Ob Gold turned away from her partner, “Well at least you can draw, all I can do is make ketchup stains with this poor excuse of a straw.”

 “But I had practice!” Ti Gold sat back down to console her. “I had to get used to this first, I don’t think anyone comes awake knowing how to do everything.”

 Ti Gold kicked one of their lead-like feet out from underneath the stage and a whirl of clumped together papers came out for Ob Gold to see all of their previous trials at the world of drawing.

 Her eyelids opened up just a smidge, “You did these?”

 Ti Gold nodded, “It takes plenty of practice to get good at something new.”

 Ob Gold picked up an unused green crayon, “Maybe I’ll try again.”

 Her partner grinned.

 It took her ten more sheets of paper before she drew a decent portrait of herself. Her hair had been colored green and her clothes red.

 “That’s pretty good!” Ti Gold congratulated her.

 Ob Gold looked at them for a moment, a considerate look on her round face. Ti Gold speculated that she was about to let out a deep thought.

 “Do you think we’re supposed to be identical?”

 “No.”

 She blinked as the word swiftly escaped their large head. Ti Gold was even taken aback by their own statement.

 “We don’t look the same,” they tried to make an example. “Even though we have similar functions that does not mean that we should be parallel to one another. From a distance we may seem to be the same but once approaching us you can clearly see that we are two completely separate beings.”

 The words went over Ob Gold’s head as she made one of her eyebrows tilt at an odd angle, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

 Ti Gold felt a similar reaction to what humans called ‘heartbreak’ or from where a child from the test audiences would cry once they took a look at the duo’s plastic forms. They could have retaliated with an angry retort, appear sad and sulk off, or just shrug it off.

 A wide grin appeared on their face as they gave off a deep chuckle that bubbled out of their voicebox and echoed within their massive chest. Ob Gold also smiled in return.

 “It doesn’t matter,” Ti Gold stopped laughing to say. “We’re still new to this routine.”

 Then the doors to the dinner opened and everything changed.

 A new group of staff was introduced to the restaurant with little to no knowledge on how both Titan and Obelisk responded to their surroundings and could move and talk on their own without direction. There was Amelia the hostess and daytime guard, a sweetheart who didn’t know much about electronics. Stephan the Supervisor of the location, he barely said a few sentences at a time but was respected. Delilah the office secretary/security officer, she was a nice and tall woman who spoke English as a second English. Then Christian the electrician and repairman for the location and robots, he was a small man who accidently snuck up on people when they weren’t paying attention to their surroundings.

 The manager himself only told the chosen four a few details about Titan and Obelisk and what to do if they were to walk by themselves without direction or to speak out of turn. They hadn’t been expecting such actions but had shrugged along anyway. He didn’t tell the staff in the kitchens, the janitors, or the waiters about the two.

 Ti Gold and Ob Gold stood behind the curtains as the grubby manager described what an average day at the dinner would be like during their employment. The shorter of the two robots was leaning forward as if struggling to hear what was being said.

 She turned to her partner, “I wonder if they’ll like it here.”

 Ti Gold only grunted and pushed their shorter hair back. A negative review came back saying that they didn’t look masculine enough with long hair and thus they were given a haircut which had set them into a foul mood ever since. They missed their long hair.

 Ob Gold only took that statement as a sign of silence as she turned back towards the thick curtains, “Maybe they’re different from the others.”

 Indeed, they were.

 As soon as the front doors opened and the smell of fresh pizza flowed through the rooms, Titan and Obelisk were stuck on the stage and instructed to sing and make merry in front of new families coming in for a visit. One switch was to be pulled and a set of bright lights could display the duo singing a happy song or for a few buttons to be pressed and a variety of effects on stage would shake to life.

 Obelisk would act as a sweet sympathizer with a higher pitched voice when it came to singing as Titan was a calm mentor with a deep baritone for solo acts. Both enjoyed working with a different audience each hour instead of a similar one every day. Obelisk was favored by many of the kids but she grew rather tired at the end of each week as more and more children tried to steal some time with her when the two were offstage. Titan actually liked the diverse kids and families who came to see them preform and longed to be just as loved as Obelisk and to not be feared for their taller figure.

 After a particular Friday the two felt the gears in their legs lock from overuse and decided that it would be a great idea to rest on a couple of boxes filled with spare parts nearby. Ob Gold leaned against the wall and let out a stream of smoke that made her look like she was overheating as Ti Gold sat hunched over with their hands on their chin in deep thought. After a few silent moments Ti Gold couldn’t compute all of their overbearing thoughts and also leaned back, staring up at the matte coated ceiling with blank eyes as their eyelids closed slightly.

 A door to the backstage was unlocked and the two security guards entered.

 Delilah sniffed the air and looked at the still-smoking Obelisk, “She’s not supposed to do that, right?”

 Amelia looked in her direction, “Isn’t she supposed to be a machine? I think so. Machines smoke up, right?”

 The office guard shrugged, “I guess, but I’ll get Christian in here to take a look at her before we leave.”

 “M-hm,” Amelia only nodded to her partner as she started to search through one of the spare boxes.

 Ti Gold only regarded them with slight interest as a nice reboot looked better with each passing minute.

 Delilah looked over at Amelia, “Tell me, why do you know so little about machinery? Were you raised in a conservative society or something?”

 Amelia’s shoulders scrunched up as her movements in the box slowed, “Not really…”

 The taller employee raised an eyebrow and took a step back, “Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

 “No,” Amelia laughed. “My family is Amish and I decided to move away and integrate into the city after Rumspringa.”

 A confused look sprung over Delilah’s face, “Rum-and-spring-ah?”

 The smaller chuckled and passed her a metal tube, “No silly, Rumspringa. It’s a rite of passage event for young adults from an Amish community to journey out and see what the English life is like. I chose that this life was more interesting than cooking over a pot of stew back at home and now I’m here trying to challenge myself.”

 “Oh?” Delilah leaned against a wall, careful not to bump into any of the stage props. “Then why come here if you don’t know much about modern technology?”

 “Around five of us, in my Rumspringa group, thought it would be a good idea to look around the outskirts of town. We ran into an entertainment convention where they had a special showing on animatronics- that’s what really enraptured me to leave my community. I and three others left the community after our ‘holiday’ was over and I sought out jobs where I could get close to goofy machinery.”

 After her story the well-dressed officer took a few items from a nearby shelf and nodded to confirm, “True, I know how it’s like to move into a new community. My parents and I moved from Korea when I was five and I was forced to learn w hole new language and culture. At least I had my parents, but you were all alone.”

 Amelia sighed, “Yeah…at least I’m where I’ve always wanted to be for a while now. I’ve worked hard and have earned myself a place in this new world.”

 Delilah turned her back and gazed over Ob Gold, whose smoke was now just a thin wisp, “Same, I’ve had an attachment to robotics ever since I saw a newspaper clipping for some guy’s science experiment. I couldn’t get a degree in engineering because my father wouldn’t fund it, so I stuck to law enforcement and hoped that I would be able to prove to him how responsible I could be.”

 “I think you’re very responsible!” the almond-haired exclaimed, a slight blush on her cheeks.

 This amused Delilah greatly as she gave her partner a smile that could have been mistaken for a smirk with her snake-like face. She snickered, “Oh don’t worry, I was named Valedictorian for my graduating class and my dad decided that I could be anything I wanted to be.”

 “Then why not earn another degree in your field of choice?”

 “I thought about it,” she shrugged and squatted down to shift through a box full of wires. “But I thought that I should explore being a police officer first. It’s been a good five years but recently I’ve been reading up on a few textbooks and I’m preparing for an entrance exam soon.”

 “That’s wonderful!”

 The two then drove into small subjects as Ti Gold went into a pleasant reboot cycle to help their processor where they didn’t online for a few hours later, clamped onto their stand with Ob Gold standing next to them.

 Ti Gold turned to look at their partner, “What did I miss?”

 “Delilah and Amelia are nice people,” she stated. “They actually care about us and each other. You missed them get Christian backstage in order to put us back in working condition. Apparently we’re also going to be performing tomorrow and the day after that instead of five days in a row. We’re full-time as of now.”

 “I see,” Ti Gold nodded and looked at the curtains. “Ob, what if I told you that I don’t appreciate being called a ‘guy’ while performing?”

 “I don’t see the big deal, in all honesty, you can choose who you want to be,” Ob Gold turned towards her partner. “We may be addressed as a guy and a gal but there’s nothing in our processors that say we must always be known as who people think we are.”

 “Then I want to be addressed as a gal, and I want my long hair back.”

 The two chuckled together at the statement as the weekend rolled in.

 Saturday was the busiest day of their lives. An overabundance of children arrived with adults in tow, chanting for pizza, ice cream, cake, and for prizes to be earned. The two weren’t used to working the weekend shifts as the dinner closed late on Saturday night and opened later on Sunday morning.

 When Ti Gold thought it was safe to come off of the stage during closing time, she silently stretched the metallic joints in her broad shoulders before turning away from the curtain to head towards the double doors that lead towards a back hallway into the Parts and Services room. She saw that the hallway light was still on and tilted her head in question.

 The tall robot continued down the hall and ignored the split that lead to the kitchen and cafeteria area. She headed towards the storage room to search for more paper and crayons for her and Ob Gold to hopefully practice with. Ti Gold carefully took the doorknob with her large hand and twisted it with enough force to open the door and head inside.

 Despite having been inside Parts and Services many times before, Ti Gold still gathered an odd feeling whenever she entered. There were extra hands and facial plates stacked onto the shelves that looked earlier familiar to the ones Ob and Ti Gold would wear daily and neatly folded sets of clothes were sitting in brown boxes made of cardboard. Now that the location was open and they were in full swing much of the equipment in the room had shifted or had been moved around.

 She stepped closer to a shelf that held extra top hats that each identical to her own. Ti Gold adjusted her own and grumbled a curse she heard Christian shout out early in the morning. She hated her new haircut so dearly that she wished that the manager would ‘hopefully’ fall down the stage stairs next time he came for a visit.

 An idea struck her and she moved to a large cardboard box that was empty and unused. She took one side with her right hand and another with her left before she pulled away at the corner in opposite directions.

 The sound of crunchy cardboard ripping made her blink and see how easy it was to break the flimsy box. A thought came to her as she lifted the two pieces of cardboard-

 ‘I wonder how strong I am.’

 Many things still confounded her as she and Ob Gold were forced to learn from experience and teach themselves. One of which was who or what they were in comparison to the adults and children beyond the stage. They couldn’t eat- an observation that Ob Gold had made when she had stuffed a yellow crayon into her mouth and had coated her fake tongue to make it look sickly. The two couldn’t cry- as seen by Ti Gold as she saw children crying in distress and later tried to do it herself.

 Despite their unique clothing and outer ‘skin’, the two were actually very similar looking when it came to the adults and children. They had five fingers, two feet, a nose, and shiny teeth, much like the humans. True, they had mechanical parts that could easily be seen in cracks and edges between their plastic skin but the two still acted similar to their guests whenever forced to react to a situation. They had human code, an AI that made them human.

 She and Ob Gold were larger than the adults and children, much larger. Ti Gold had observed Christian lift a heavy box with little difficulty and had seen a child try to lift their mother’s large purse but struggle as they dragged it across the floor. Where did the two robots fit onto the scale? Where they adults or children?

 Now a new observation was added to Ti Gold’s processor- ‘Adult strength must be the recorded strongest so children strength must be the recorded weakest.’

 Spying a heavy box full of leg parts, she dropped the cardboard and headed over to it to test her theory.

 ‘Now we see how strong I am.’

 She crouched down and mimicked what Christian had done to lift the previous box. Hugging it close to her chest and using her legs to stand back up.

 What she didn’t expect was for the box to be so light and for the force of her legs to make her jump a few inches into the air. Her eyelids retracted all the way in surprise as the parts in the box jittered around and she felt weightless in the air.

 Coming back down she emitted a huge thumb with her large body as the soles of her shoes made contact with the floor. The parts remained in the air for a second longer before also dropping down with her, only a few returning to the box while the rest clattered loudly onto the tiled floor.

 Ti Gold flinched as the sounds echoed throughout the room and stood completely still as everything went silent. Only the thin drum of the light in the hallway remained as Ti Gold stood in fright and shock of her actions.

 ‘Am I stronger than an adult or was the box just light?’ she thought desperately as she slowly came out of her stupor to gently set the box back down, not daring to bother with the spare parts in case she made any more noise.

 Seeing that she had caused enough trouble, Ti Gold saw it best to just head back to the stage and hang out with Ob Gold until the two went into a nice recharge cycle to be energized enough to deal with the staff and audience tomorrow. Hopefully Ob Gold would be rather lenient with the children tomorrow, seeing how she didn’t like them ganging around her like a pack of wild animals.

 Exiting Parts and Services, Ti Gold walked at a swift pace in the hall until the light overhead went out.

 She stopped to stare down the now-dark hall. That was odd, most machines didn’t just turn ‘off’ without a good reason. She and Ob Gold were different but they never really turned ‘off’ like simple machines.

 Ti Gold squinted her eyes and thought for a moment. She didn’t mind the dark, in fact she was rather used to it since she and her stage partner had spent a lot of time entertaining themselves in the silence of the night and in-between working hours. Their eyes glowed for gripe’s sake! (a swear she had picked up from Christian.)

 Taking a chance, she slowly strode down the hall with her arms slightly outstretched defensively. She slowly turned her head right and left in order to see for herself if there was anything out of the ordinary. One hand lightly grazed the right wall and she hunched her shoulders in surprise.

 When she reached the cafeteria she saw that everything was as dark as it was supposed to be, with the exception of the moonlight that flooded in from the skylight above. The curtains were closed tight and the tables cleaned up. If Ti Gold had oralfactory sensors, then she could have smelled the fresh floor cleaner that had been used to wash the previously grubby floors.

 There was a light on in the kitchen. The hearing sensors on each side of her head picked up the faint sound of pots clinking together and silverware jingling.

 That was odd, normally the kitchen staff would have left to go home already. Something didn’t sit right.

 She silently walked through the room, almost gliding between the tables. Ti Gold hadn’t intentionally wanted to walk silently but actually found it easier to not make make a sound with the rubber soles of her thick shoes. It was as if she were a mechanical ghost- a denizen of the diner at night.

 Approaching the kitchen doors, she tried to peer through the circular windows but couldn’t see any movement under the one light source in the room. Deciding to take a closer look, she used just enough strength to push open one of the doors and duck inside.

 She walked animatedly around the edges of the light and tried to search for the source of the noise as the door slowly swung shut behind her, emitting a slight squeaking sound.

 The noise stopped but Ti Gold continued her approach until she was halfway in the light, creeping slowly…slowly…slowly…ever so slowly…

 Then a glass-shattering shriek caused her back to straighten in fright as her arms arched back and fingers curled to look like claws. She turned towards the sound of the shriek as it happened again.

 It was Amelia, hands over her head and face full of fright as she looked up at Ti Gold. This was Ti Gold’s first time time coming face to face with the new employee as she observed the young woman’s long brown hair and small figure that made her look almost child-like to the large robot.

 Another set of doors burst open from the opposite side of the kitchen and the silhouette of a tall woman was shown with a determined stance. Ti Gold looked from the shaking Amelia to the newcomer in worry for what was making the day guard act like this.

 The other woman surged forward to Amelia’s side and took her away from Ti Gold as the smaller began to fight off her savior, “No! NO! Back away daemons!”

 “Amelia! It’s me, Delilah!” the taller struggled as her coworker kicked and thrashed.

 Amelia looked up into Delilah’s delicate face and wailed in grief before halting her rebellious actions.

 Delilah swiftly looked back up towards Ti Gold before dragging Amelia away towards the entrance she came from. Ti Gold only stood in shock and fear, not daring to move just in case someone else decided to make a large racket.

 The taller guard set Amelia down on the floor, “Oh Amelia…what happened?”

 She sniffled, “I- I was just searching for my keys when I heard the door on the other end close. It was frightening! I thought that you or the manager had come in to see if I was here or to also look for something so I turned around to greet you but-“

 Amelia only started wailing again.

 Delilah hugged her and rubbed her back, “It’s okay, I’m here. Take your time.”

 After a few moments of pitiful sobbing, Amelia continued, “I saw the large looming figure come out of the light and into the darkness, all black like charcoal but with devilish glowing eyes with yellow fiery orbs in them! I thought that the Devil himself had appeared before me and my world just sh- shattered! I thought my time was up! I have committed no sin-“

 “Amelia, stop,” her piercing gaze locked with Amelia’s soft brown eyes. The smaller guard gave one last final sniff before hiccupping.

 Delilah cleared her throat, “The Devil doesn’t exist, all that religion hooey that your community shoved down your throat is hogwash. It’s only Titan the robot, he must have been left on or something.”

 “Gal.”

 Both heads turned in Ti Gold’s direction. Ti Gold had tried to correct Delilah and say that she didn’t want to be known as a guy anymore but Amelia had taken it the wrong way and burst out in tears again.

 “He wants me!”

 Ti Gold shrank back, her eyelids drooping and eyebrows slack. A new feeling came over her as the lights in the kitchen flickered to life.

 The three’s attention was turned toward an angry manager who was standing in the doorway, his left hand on the doorway and right on his hip. Ti Gold straightened herself up a bit.

 He growled in a low voice, “What in Blue Blazes is going on in here?”

 Amelia gulped as Delilah helped her to her feet, “Sorry sir, Amelia here was frightened by the robot and-“

 His gaze fell upon Ti Gold and she felt a sickening feeling go down her metallic spine.

 “You,” he pushed past his two employees and strode towards her. Despite being an exact here feet shorter than her he still managed to look menacing. Ti Gold felt that it would have been a good time to gulp if she could.

 “What are you doing off the stage area?! You’re supposed to stay on stage during closing hours! Get back to your position or so help me you’ll be turned into scrap metal and reformed into a steel chair for my office! ARE WE CLEAR?!”

 Ti Gold didn’t know it was possible for human faces to turn as bright red as the sauce they put on pizza. She blinked to confirm her undertsnading.

 He huffed and strutted off, “Good, now scat!”

 Once he was out of the room, Ti Gold straightened her back all the way and let out a puff of steam she had been keeping in her chest. Amelia let out one last hiccup and shakily took a step backwards.

 “I should go home now…my roommate must be worried about me,” her face was as pale as a china dish.

 Delilah patted her back, “I’ll drive you home, just let me make sure Titan here doesn’t cause any more harm before we go.”

 She walked calmly over to Ti Gold and smiled slightly at the taller being, “I see that we haven’t met formally yet, but please allow me to show you the exit to the main stage.”

 Ti Gold looked at her and took in what she looked like. Delilah had pointed features and wore neat eyeliner to exaggerate her almond shaped eyes well. She looked very East Asian and had long black hair that it was so thick Ti Gold thought it could have been a void that her eyes couldn’t pierce. Her nose was slightly larger than an average human’s and her smile was wide to view her big white teeth that could easily win over anyone who had doubts. What really struck Ti Gold were her deep eyes that were colored purple (unknown to her was that it was the Alexandria’s Genesis mutation) that no other human had that seemed to suck the soul out of a living being.

 It was Ti Gold’s turn to step back as her eyelids opened wider and a look of suspicion came over her. Delilah tilted her head and gave her a smug smile.

 Suddenly, Delilah just changed.

 Ti Gold blinked as Delilah’s form blinked in and out of existence for a moment. The guard’s form then appeared distorted as static flashed over her eyes. A weird piercing sound was emitted through her processor as the static cleaned itself up and focused back onto reality. Once the static was gone the noise stopped and there stound a changed Delilah.

 The robot’s mouth opened a smidge as her eyelids reeled all the way back at what she saw.

 Delilah now looked like she had been coated in purple and violet paint as she now appeared to be a vibrant lifeform from another planet. Her beautiful eyes were now pale and bloodshot as if she had stayed up many nights to accomplish some important task. Jet black hair now straggly and greasy violet. Perfectly manicured nails and soft hands now bore resemblance to a demonic creature with long, thin fingers and sharp claws. Her bright teeth were grey and slowly yellowing as if she were aging.

 Ti Gold took another step back as the new Delilah chuckled, “I think it’s past your bedtime, best you get back to bed ah?”

 Though this new Delilah had the same voice as the original, Ti Gold was greatly confused as to how this had happened. Amelia looked unfazed at this transformation.

 Seeing no way out, Ti Gold animatedly took her leave and went through the backstage doors to get back to the stage area to see Ob Gold immediantly.

 Ob Gold almost jumped in surprise upon seeing her partner practically stomp to her spot, “Ti Gold! Where were you? I heard this awful noise and then there was screaming-“

 “Bad,” the dapper robot exclaimed. “Delilah is bad news.”

 A new program had sprung to life in her processor after she had exited the kitchen. She could feel a new drive run through her circuitry as new data packages opened up and expanded her AI, making her learn new software at an alarming rate. Facial Recognition scans were now available and were hardwired to a criminal database, a Rate of Endangerment that linked to an FBI listing of what traits to look for in case of a suspicious character, drills on what to do in case of child endangerment, and a map of the facility with fire escape routes and the locations of the nearest fire alarms, smoke detectors, firearms, and fire extinguishers. It was all too much for her as she started to shake.

 

 Purple = Bad

 Delilah = Purple

 Delilah = Bad

 

 This new rule stood at the top of her list of priorities. Delilah had to go.

 She turned to a shocked Ob Gold, “Delilah puts the children in danger, we need to get rid of her.”

 “Ti Gold!” her partner exclaimed in disbelief. “That’s rather forward wouldn’t you think? Delilah is a nice person and I see no harm in her, why would you want to rudely kick her out?”

 “She’s purple,” Ti Gold said but then realized how silly that sounded.

 “All the guard’s uniforms are purple; does that make them bad?”

 “B-but her skin, her eyes!”

 “They look normal to me.”

 A realization came over the taller robot, “How close were you last time you saw her?”

 Ob Gold took a moment before answering, “She helped haul me back onto my spot on the stage with Christian, so she was almost in my face.”

 “Did anything…change?”

 “No?”

 Ob Gold didn’t have the same programing as her.

 “Ob Gold, I’m sorry, I cannot let this go,” Ti Gold shook her head.

 “Ti Gold,” the robot with crystal-like eyes took her partner’s hand. “You might have been confused tonight, we’ve been having a rough time lately. Think about this and just watch Delilah tomorrow- you’ll see that everything is normal.”

 Ti Gold wanted to argue some more but a stern gaze from Ob Gold made her shrug her shoulders in defeat. Maybe things would look differently in the morning.


	2. The Best Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ti Gold learns a few new feelings and separates from Ob Gold. Soon, it's the best day of their life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! I've been busy with schoolwork and have been working on this chapter little by little but haven't found anything in my brain to write. I'll make sure the next chapter is written fast but hopefully I'll be working on my final.

Ti Gold learned what hate was.

When a young child accidently dropped their vanilla ice cream on her midnight satin pants she was slightly annoyed but laughed it off as a childish antic. As the manager to the restaurant complained about her and Ob Gold in front of the duo she grew to dislike him greatly for his negative attitude and ugly appearance. But when Delilah ever walked into her view, heavily violet colored form smirking at her or someone else from afar, the air in the room grew heavy and thick with discomfort.

Ob Gold would either give her partner a disapproving look or a sharp cough whenever she saw Ti Gold stare hard at the security guard. She couldn’t see anything wrong at all from her viewpoint but there was always something or other that made her partner freeze up and emit a rumbling within their chest.

It soon became apparent to Ti Gold that Ob Gold had a flawed processor and that there was a growing rift between the two. After each performance on stage she found that Ob Gold didn’t want to bring up an actual topic of discussion.

The taller robot would look at Ob Gold, “Today was a great performance.”

Ob Gold would nod before looking away, “It was.”

“Let’s have a blast tomorrow.”

They would then not talk to each other for at least twelve hours.

Soon the staff then noticed more disturbances offstage whenever closing hours were in effect. Pots and pans would be spread in odd places in the kitchen, supplies would be jumbled together in the Janitor’s closet, stage lights and props would be pushed towards the middle of the stage almost like a dividing line, and more children’s drawings would appear on the wall albeit a bit darker or heavier than the other pieces. This was first pushed aside as just a weird coincidence by the staff but as this continued over the weeks they then decided that this could no longer stay unsolved.

A team was decided to deal with this one Thursday night as they were told to hide out around in staff-only chambers until they felt a disturbance after hours. On this such team was one of the previous mechanics that had helped set up the two golden animatronics, a begrudging Christian, and the manager himself.

They had to wait two whole hours after closing until Christian saw the tall figure of Ti Gold walk past.

He dared to not move as the tall robot sauntered past the boiler closet. Ti Gold’s eyes were lowered to a dim setting that made the lights on her face appear as pinpricks. Her front was shaded and hard to make out with the drowsy lighting. She moved slowly as she made her way towards the back of the restaurant.

Christian peered slightly out of the door and watched as Ti Gold’s large form faded into the darkness.

On the other side of the restaurant, the manager was hidden in a corner that was hardly accessible to the daytime patrons. He watched as Ob Gold walked calmly from the stage area and towards the kitchen. The lights in her eyes were off and she had the appearance of a ghost in the pale lighting.

An idea came to him as soon as she disappeared from sight behind the pane glass windows that were grafted onto the kitchen doors.

Friday morning, he stormed into the dinner with a mechanic that was new to both robots. He found both ready to start the day on stage, each with a dark expression on their fake faces.

“There will be no more nightly wanderings from the two of you,” he announced. “Following Amelia’s shock I should have impounded the two of you back onto your places but no, I was too lenient.”

Ti Gold squinted in his direction.

“Allow me to introduce your new babysitter, the night guard, Ethan,” he then gestured to the man that came in with him. Ethan gave a little wave.

Ob Gold looked at Ethan and gave him a warm smile, “Hello.”

Ti Gold turned her back out of spite but wished she wouldn’t appear so mean in front of someone new.

“You are to remain on stage for the rest of the night or you will be revoked your daytime privileges for the following day. Are we understood?”

Ob Gold nodded but it took Ti Gold a few moments to struggle out a ‘yes sir’ before going back to adjusting her microphone.

Ethan followed the manager out.

Once the doors slammed shut behind them, the long-haired robot turned angrily to her partner, “This is all your fault.”

“Me?” Ti Gold barked out a snobbish laugh that she had learned from Delilah. “I only went out to check security but I somehow managed to scare one of the guards! How did I cause this?”

“If you hadn’t been so obsessed with Delilah then you wouldn’t have gone off the deep end!”

Ti Gold swiftly turned to face her partner, “Oh so we’re back to discussing about how I’m crazy and Delilah is a saint? I know what I saw! I had security programming running in my systems when I gazed at her!”

“Bullshit!” Ob Gold emitted a swear and growled like Christian would when his engineering work went wrong. “I have seen her do nothing but good and yet you let some software that may be on the fritz judge your surroundings for you?”

“It’s working fine! I even saw a guy outside with long pants that was painted purple as well!”

“That proves nothing. We have a job to entertain the children during the day and nothing else. It’s time you got your head out of the crowd and back into the stage lights.”

The two didn’t speak for a full week.

Ethan did come in for his shift every night at twelve, just a few minutes after the rest of the staff left. He would sit in the office and watch the security feed every five-to-ten minutes to check for any movement.

The two instead who only ‘deactivate’ after each performance and only move and speak during performances. This was a childish display of playing dead to the manager but thankfully he would only nod in confirmation and mutter ‘just as machines are supposed to act’ before walking away.

Ethan grew lax as he saw that Ti and Ob Gold had given up on moving after hours and had quit trying to kill time for themselves. He started to barely even check the cameras, only the stage. A few times he would swear that he saw one flinch or look his way but the feed would go out and return before everything appeared normal.

Ti Gold hated being a statue. Ob Gold only put up with it because she was loyal to a fault.

Then one night, a most curious incident occurred.

It happened while Ethan was sound asleep in the office, snoring away in the faux leather chair. Both of the robots heard a tapping noise at the front entrance and a faint ‘tick’ before a rock smashed through the glass window.

Both jumped in alarm at the noise but Ethan only snoozed away as he laid at the other side of the building. A black-clad figure eased their way between the shards of glass before stepping onto the tiled floor, mindful of the smashed glass. Another figure, almost identical to the first, stepped through the smashed entry way and gestured to the security camera that was currently facing away from them.

The two then stealthily stuck close to the walls and hung in the darkened areas of the establishment.

They passed the curtained stage and one pointed to the other-

“Hey, Earl.”

“Shh!”

“Wanna try behind those curtains? It’s dark enough that even a regular camera won’t even take notice of us.”

“You forgot the term probably.”

“It’s worth a shot.”

“…if this fails, you’ll be the one paying bail this time.”

With a final nod to each other, the two made their way behind the curtains just as the camera’s view swiped over where they had entered from.

Both stood up from their spots on the polished wood and looked up in awe at the two unmoving robots. They knew that there would be performing machines but they wouldn’t have thought that the two would be so tall…or so unguarded.

The burglar known as ‘Earl’ quietly spoke, “How much money do you think we can pawn off for at least one of these?”

“They’re new,” Earl’s partner replied. “Also they’re on different technology as the others in that location down south.”

“Ohio?”

“No, that one’s just…different.”

“Supposing that they run on batteries or need charging, do you think we’d also need to steal their equipment?”

“Not really, with all the tech junkies around they’ll probably find some way to make it work for them.”

“We could get delicious money off of them, but we don’t have enough muscle power to take them both or just one of them.”

“You’re right, we came for the money and we’re going to leave with this branch’s savings. Let’s go.”

The two looked around before exiting backstage.

Once out of earshot, both Ti Gold and Ob Gold slowly turned their heads in the direction of where the suspicious two went off.

Ti Gold was the first to speak up, “We have to stop them.”

Ob Gold responded, “Yes, but let’s be rational. If Foreman finds out-“

“I don’t care about what the manager has to say,” Ti Gold glared. “He can go stick a couple of breadsticks up his ass.”

Her partner put her hands over her ears at the sharp language. Ob Gold had recently found out about the impact of saying ‘nasty’ words with Ti Gold but only the longer haired of the two decided to follow up with clean words.

She sent her partner a very unappetizing look before removing her hands from her ears, “We can’t let Ethan see us move around or we’ll get reported and reformatted.”

The word ‘reformatted’ was tossed at them a few days ago as a warning. Both robots then learned what a racing feeling in their air tubes and the combined power of their processors stalling was called.

Fear.

To put a robot under such a horrific experience was a sentence worse than death. It held the same meaning as brainwashing but with more lobotomizing towards the body, forcing the given robot to have a changed state of mind and to remove the basic functions that gave them personality. If each robot were given the same basic design, then each robot would be given the name of ‘Drone’ with a serial number that provided no expectations of what they were built for.

It meant that if the golden show business duo didn’t follow the man-versus-machine rules, then they would be put under the mechanic’s watchful gaze and sent out to look like a chipmunk and chop wood- forgotten forever.

…well, figuraly speaking.

Ti Gold clenched and unclenched their fists. She looked Ob Gold in the eye, “Fine, give me a plan.”

Ob Gold gave her a sly smile.

Down the hall the two burglars went as they easily made their way towards the back of the building to where Ethan was snoozing away the early hours, dreaming of the precious money his daddy will bestow upon him after completing yet another easy shift. Just two…or three more…hours left…

It was then that Earl had the terrible sensation of being watched. He looked up at the security camera closet to him as it stayed in place, never once blinking red to signal that the security guard was looking through it. The blonde shrugged it off and lead his cohort further towards the desk in the back.

“Hey, do you hear that?” the other burglar shook him out of his focus.

“It’s just the AC Tim, sometimes it whistles depending on the temperature,” Earl spat back.

“No dude, listen.”

The two stopped and Earl brushed the hair away from his right ear in order to pay close attention to whatever sounds were emanating within the building. It sounded like what you would expect from within the walls of a wood and cement one-story building built in the early eighties. There was the classic AC keeping the machinery cool and the humming of vents and fridges, the whirring of security cameras and the snores and sniffles of a tired guard, the dripping of a leaky pipe outside of the building and the howling winds of a hot summer night silently caressing the windows and bricks that decorated the outside.

Then there it was.

Softly, almost blending in with the background, were slow music notes. They weaved and danced around all the other noises and flowed as if it belonged there, a part of the melody that was Fazbear’s Diner. It was nearly unrecognizable without it.

The melody had a marching tune to it. Bearing the fact that the tune was being played by a music box made the song much more melodic, sad even. It was probably tear-jerking to some emotional moms or patriotic Europeans, but it didn’t have much of an impact on the two.

There was only that creepy feeling that music was not supposed to be playing after hours.

All other sounds were tuned out as a sinking feeling fell flat in the two’s stomachs, as if each had a depressed man rope their ankles together to a cinderblock and drowned themselves in the thieves’ stomach acids. There was the calming voice in the back of their heads telling them that someone might have accidently left one of the switches for the stage on before they left for the day.

“Let’s keep going,” Earl insisted and they turned towards the hallway, away from the cafeteria.

Both stopped dead in their tracks when they saw a neat, perfect, straight out of the plastic packaging party hat in the middle of the hall. The green, pink, and yellow stripes didn’t appear fun anymore but sicklier, disgusting, as if those colors should not be allowed to clash together.

Under the party hat’s view were words written in black paint.

‘ENGAGE THE PARTY HAT MOTHERFUCKER’

They each took a step back and looked at each other, not saying a word. The two had barely noticed that the music had stopped playing.

“Dude,” Tim spoke softly.

Earl shook his head at him, “Don’t. Say. It.”

“This is some Scooby Doo bullshit right here-“

“WHAT the fuck man!”

Despite the outburst from Earl’s end, Ethan didn’t not stir from his slumber. At this point, not even a large meteor from space breaking through the Earth’s atmosphere could wake up this young man.

They quickly turned back around, not willing to engage in any activity. The situation had taken a sour turn.

After reentering the cafeteria, the two were met with pitch blackness that made their eyes go blind. This was abnormal since the shutters on the windows let in just enough light from moonlight and the streetlamps to filter in but now it looked like someone had shut them, obscuring anyone from looking in or for light to be given to those who work afterhours.

Earl opened and closed his mouth but no sound came out.

They didn’t notice the two specks of white light peering out of the darkness right behind them.

Their attention instead was drawn to the backstage door as it slammed shut and proceeded to reopen very slowly. Both adults crept nearer to one another to make sure that this was really happening.

Another tune began to play, but this one was more sorrowful than the last. It swayed and waltzed across the two as the other noises in the building halted all actions to let it play. This was no march or fanfare but a slow and mysterious question like tune that made the hairs on the back of their necks stand up.

“All I ask of you…”

“What the hell? WHAT THE HELL?” Earl grabbed Tim and took a step back.

The two glowing specks towered above their shoulders and shone brighter, illuminating their backs. Time turned around and paled at the sight.

“Uhh…Earl?”

“WHAT?!”

Earl turned to look in Tim’s line of sight and saw the two glowing orbs.

Then at least ten more white lights appeared in two straight rows under the original two and slowly distanced themselves. Just like teeth.

The creature before them groaned and a high pitched noise escaped from its dark throat, making the two’s hair go white with fright. It leaned over them and the pitch increased as the music had gotten faster. Just as it was an inch away from their faces, it spoke.

“Run.”

That was when Earl and Tim booked it for the exit, screaming incoherently. Instead of exiting through the entrance that they made they accidently rushed into a funny mirror that was near the entry way. Earl’s nose started bleeding profusely as Tim actually managed to jump over the shattered glass and out into the parking lot but tripped on the landing. A minute later police cars rolled into the lot and trained their lights on the pitiful scene.

As soon as the two had started screaming, Ethan had been woken up momentarily and had hit the emergency call switch within the office to signal the authorities before drifting back to sleep. Good thing the nearest police station was just a few blocks away. By the way, this all was only an accident.

The crooks were detained and put into each a separate car as Ethan groggily made his way to the front of the building to check what all the hubbub was all about.

“What the…?” he rubbed one eye and yawned as an officer approached him.

“Son, can you tell me-“

“THAT PLACE IS HAUNTED!” Earl screamed, making the officer and Ethan turn to look at him. Earl had half-white half-blonde hair that was frayed and his eyes were wide and crazy, the blood kept on dripping from his left nostril.

As another officer put him into the squad car he fought to look at Ethan and screamed, “Get out while you can! There are demons that lurk in that building! I tell you!”

With one final push he was shoved and locked into the car. He banged on the window and shouted some more before the car rolled away, out of sight.

Ethan looked back at the deputy as he was about to spoke as another car rolled up.

“Ethan!” the booming voice of the manager made him flinch. “What in blazes is going on around here?!”

The guard raised his hands, “Well, sir-“

“Are you the owner of this establishment?” the deputy put himself in front of Ethan.

The manager blinked and looked up at the officer with his small eyes, “No, I’m the manager.”

The deputy tipped his hat, “Well, you see, your employee here raised the alarm and we were able to come just in the nick of time to arrest the two deviants who had trashed the entrance and were out to rob the place. You’ll have to fix your window but everything else seems to be in order.”

Ethan’s boss split into a wide, toothy smile and exclaimed, “Well then! Guess I gotta get the insurance company on the line and make sure the janitor shows up in the next hour so we can open tomorrow! Thank you, sherriff.”

“Deputy.”

“Whatever.” and the officer went back towards his car to where a quite Tim was holding his arm and staring at the floor of the car. He started up the car and pulled out of the lot.

The manager looked at Ethan, “My boy, looks like you have done splendidly tonight!”

“I have?” Ethan rubbed the back of his neck and blinked before coming to an understanding. “I have!”

“Yes sir-ee,” he grabbed Ethan’s back and led him inside. “I bet I can get you a promotion to head security guard, which means that, not only do you get a raise, shorter hours once we get someone else to fill in to be your fellow coworker.”

“Oh boy!” the two continued to chat towards the office before a faint scream could be heard.

“YOU WROTE THIS?”

Seconds later a party hat was thrown into the trash and burned along with its previous contents.

Meanwhile, behind the golden curtains of the stage, Ob and Ti Gold stood perfectly still as they heard what went on.

“Do you think I spelled ‘Motherfucker’ correctly?” Ti Gold whispered to her partner.

“Judging by our manager’s reaction I think you did a spot on job.” Ob Gold smiled.

The two then made snickering noises and bobbed their shoulders to make it look like they were laughing. Once the air was cleared of laughter the two looked at one another before looking away shamefully.

“They didn’t give us any credit,” Ob Gold stated sadly.

“They didn’t see us.”

“I was kind of hoping you would mess up and let them see your face.”

“That’s kind of hard,” Ti Gold turned to let Ob Gold see her face and she let the springlocks on her face unscrew to reveal her endoskeleton’s head. Her eyes were built a full inch away from the metal head and only the front was uncovered to allow light to travel away from her head.

“Now if I had lit my lights while my face was whole, then those two would have been able to know who was tormenting them.”

“What about the teeth trick? How did you cover your mouth when-“

Ti Gold redid the springlocks for the bottom part of her face to cover up her endoskeleton’s mouth.

“Oh.”

Ob Gold turned away as her partner redid the rest of the locks. There was silence between the two for a while.

Ti Gold finally spoke, “I think you’re right.”

The shorter one turned to her, “About what?”

Ti Gold turned away, “I am obsessive. I try to keep things in order and push you too far. Sometimes I’m able to take a step back and view what I’m doing but most of the time I’m just surging forward and just trying to prove to you that I’m right.”

She chanced a peek at Ob Gold and continued, “I’ve been hooked on Delilah. I know she’s not what she appears to be and that won’t stop me from trying to prove it. For the now, I’ve seen what we can accomplish together as a team. Being separate has turned us apart and made us get a babysitter to make sure we were behaving. I can’t stand it anymore.”

The taller turned fully to Ob Gold, “Can’t we be friends again?”

Ob Gold’s face was blank. A moment passed between them that felt all too long to Ti Gold.

Finally, Ob Gold took a step towards her, then another, and another, before throwing herself onto the taller to hug them.

Ti Gold was surprised but returned the hug steadily.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to hear you say that,” Ob Gold said with a smile in her voice.

Ti Gold also gave a smile, feeling something tug at her music box strings. The feeling was something new but almost familiar. She had seen parents kiss each other and teenagers in the crowd sit very close to one another to hold their hands in each other’s grasp. Kids didn’t really act the same way and nor did babies. A mother in the crowd would often kiss their crying child and hold them close or a father would help their offspring succeed at a hard videogame and help them carry their large prize back to the car.

Love.

She clung on tighter to Ob Gold, accepting the fact that she was growing up.

The next day they had decided to pull out the table from the backstage area that the employees use while working stage shifts onto the middle of the stage and were each sitting in a chair. Ob Gold had scourged up some papers and crayons while Ti Gold was reading an early edition newspaper that had been thrown through the open door as the insurance woman had walked in (the paper then proceed to hit Ethan squarely in the face).

The front cover read ‘Fazbear’s Diner Scoundrels!’ and featured both Earl and Tim as they told about their experience and the newspaper portrayed them as shady drug dealers and Ethan as he told a wildly unconvincing story of what he did to scare off the crooks.

“Garbage,” Ti Gold sneered as she turned the page to look at menswear. She whistled at the striped tuxes and orange pants.

Upon turning to the funnies she looked to her left at the third chair that they had moved. What sat in it was a large five-foot plushie of a sock monkey-esque figure with a black body and white rings around its arms and legs. There were five rings around the arms and nine for the legs. Its head was ovular and had profound red cheeks. Only the front half of the head was white as the rest of it was black like its body. The face had a wide black smile with red lip stains and happy squinted black eyes that had purple tear stains that poured out of the bottom and ended at the top of the mouth.

Ti Gold chuckled and patted the arm of it, “Cute.”

It belonged to the prize corner and was a very hard to win prize. Only kids with at least seven thousand tickets could pull off winning such a prize. Due to the complexity of the prize, only five were in stock and quickly gathering dust. Apparently it was a character from another location and wasn’t popular at Ti and Ob Gold’s home.

Ob Gold sat in the chair across from the newspaper reading robot and hummed as she drew a picture of Ethan in his office, sleeping, “I wonder why nobody would take such an adorable thing home.”

“Maybe the kids today might want to have a crack at it. I hear there’s going to be a birthday party soon.”

“Hopefully a few kids that bring lots of money will try to aim high. It would be sad to watch some gorgeous things continue to be locked away.”

A new window was installed in place of the smashed one from the previous night’s events with a grumbling manager who thought that the insurance woman was certainly scamming him. Ethan was given a new coworker named Eric who had recently applied to college and wanted a summer job before heading off for school.

Speaking of Ethan, now he told the same story he had sold to the local newspaper to all of the other employees, but now with more exaggerated actions.

Right at the moment there was a cluster of Stephan, Christian, Amelia, Delilah, Eric, two waiters, and someone from the kitchen. Amelia hung on to every word as if it were true as Delilah smiled and nodded along, believing only half of what was said. Stephan had a stony face and Christian was rolling his eyes in a good nature. Eric looked at his new boss questioningly as if trying to figure out Ethan’s IQ with just spending a few minutes with him as the rest of the staff tried to dodge all of the improve actions the guard threw at them.

“The blonde guy was all like ‘I’m going to shoot this guy with five lead bullets and make him drink his own piss’ but then I swung out and HOO! HAH! Right in the kisser! I make sure he goes right through that old window!”

“I thought the other guy was the one who went through the window?” Christian muttered to his fellow coworkers.

Thankfully the manager rounded the corner just in time to lecture them, “What are you doing? Ethan! Eric! Go home! Get some rest! Your job is over! The rest of you- get back to work!”

Very soon the day went back to normal. The birthday party posse wasn’t scheduled to arrive until five or six at night and would probably last until closing. Amelia had to fill in as a waitress for half the time due to the overcrowdness that was a Friday afternoon as Delilah went on extra rounds to circle around the cafeteria and the arcade as Stephan patrolled the halls to keep an eye on the staff and any wandering guests.

Ti Gold was busy sticking to routine but would always give a little extra when she had to reply or turn to Ob Gold. She couldn’t help but have a dreamier air when spouting song lyrics while looking at Ob Gold’s optics.

The shorter of the two would respond with equal enthusiasm and give a longer draw of breath while blinking towards the audience. Ti Gold assumed that this was because Ob Gold was glad to be with her again.

“Heartaches/”

“Ba ba boom/”

“Hear-ar-arta-aches/”

“Da va bum/”

“It doesn’t matter how my heart breaks/”

“Yea da vum/”

“’Cause my art aches for/”

Everything was going perfectly.

Ti Gold had never had a better day in her life. Ob Gold was beautiful, the music was fantastic, pizza was certainly delicious, and the building was overflowing with excited kids. If there was one thing missing then it would be the fact that Ti Gold would have wanted their long hair back, but that was not important.

Soon the birthday bash arrived and the two were busy prepping themselves for the special performance and for when they’d travel offstage to help the special kid with their cake and presents.

Once seated into their bright primary colored throne the birthday girl was given a cardboard crown that was painted yellow with golden hues with plastic gems that had been hotglued on. They clapped their hands in glee as the pizza arrived.

The lights in the cafeteria dimmed as the stage lights focused on the golden curtains.

“And now! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages! We like to introduce to you a special song from our golden duo!”

Gold curtains parted and there stood Ti Gold and Ob Gold with their signature mic and guitar. The shorter of the two slightly strummed their guitar and hummed a high note as Ti Gold stepped into the spot light.

“We gather here today to play a special tune for our birthday champ. Casey, please stand up!”

Casey giggled, clapped her hands again and stood up just in time for a stage light to fall on her so everyone in the crowd could see the birthday girl.

Ti Gold began to sway from side to side, “You’re turning another year old/”

Ob Gold came in as backup, “Another year has gone by/”

“Just in time for a new year/”

“For a new you/”

“Do you know what this means?/”

“We get to put a new candle on your cake/”

“We want you all to gather ‘round/”

“And sing away the sadness/”

“You don’t know what the new you has planned/”

“It’s best to wish you on your way/”

“As we get to see you grow~”

Five staff members from the kitchen rolled out a birthday cake from the freezer with seven candles already standing up straight and erect, ready for lit matches to light them up. Once the cake was put onto the table a larger candle was placed in the center of the handsome cake.

The staff lit the first seven before slowly lighting the large one, only for sparks to ignite from its tip and for the audience to gasp in amazement.

Colored lights appeared and swirled around the stage as everyone got ready to sing along to one of the most famous songs throughout the known universe.

Ti and Ob Gold were illuminated together as they sang in unison with the crowd.

“Happy birthday to you/ Happy birthday to you/ Happy birthday dear Casey/ Happy birthday to you~”

There were many applauses from the audience and from the party group itself as a few of Casey’s friends cheered for her and sang their own corny versions of the happy birthday song. Casey thought up of a wish before blowing out her candles as many family members around her took pictures of her with the flash on.

It was a controlled fireworks blitz in its own right.

Ti Gold and Ob Gold each took their bows as rehearsed as a few of the children shouted their stage names in approval.

“Titan! Obelisk! Titan! Obelisk!”

Just as the curtain closed over Ti Gold, she saw Casey smile up at her.

Ob Gold clapped her on the shoulder and smiled, “I think you did rather well.”

If Ti Gold could blush then her face would be beet red by now, “You think?”

Her partner nodded.

Stephan breathlessly walked up the backstage steps and took a minute to catch his breath and pant, “Al-alright. You guys need to get over th-there and w-wish that girl a happy birthday.”

The two took their leave, Ti Gold allowing Ob Gold to go ahead of her. Just as Ti Gold finished descending the staircase, she heard Stephan breathe, “Funny…I couldn’t find Delilah anywhere…”

She halted in place as her eyes widened in disbelief. Delilah was supposed to be the one to look over their performance and send for them today.

During the performance she was too caught up in the beauty of her partner and the joy that was Casey’s birthday bash. She didn’t see a flash of smooth black hair or dull purple while looking out across the crowd.

Maybe since the building was so packed she had been caught up in the arcade? There could have been a nasty fight that had broken out of one of the machines had been broken by a rowdy child- those could be excellent excuses. Perhaps she had to help Amelia with something?

No. Amelia was at the hostess desk and seemed to be fine. If her friend was in any trouble then Delilah would have stormed over and helped her, right?

That left one conclusion, and it made Ti Gold’s processor stall in fright.

“Ti?” Ob Gold’s worried tone sucked the top hated robot back to the present.

“Yes?” she looked down at her partner.

Ob Gold tilted her head, “We need to get out and visit the birthday girl, Casey.”

“Err- right!” Ti Gold tried to shrug it off and approached Ob Gold.

“Is everything all right?”

No.

Ti Gold tried to laugh it off, “Of course! I think I have a bug in my system though.”

That only caused her partner to worry more, “Oh no! Do we need to make our visit short or should Stephan take a look at you?”

Ti Gold put her hands up, “I’m fine, honest. Just need to check something out in the halls.”

That made Ob Gold’s concerned look turn into one of frustration.

“Tell me what’s wrong!”

The two stood there for a moment before Ti Gold spoke, “Trust me, let me go check in the hallways for a moment and I’ll meet you at Casey’s side.”

An air bubble gathered in one of Ob Gold’s tubes, “Go.”

She turned away and headed for the cafeteria, “Just go.”

Ti Gold waited until Ob Gold was out of earshot before scampering for the back halls.

The back halls were a place only for employees. There were rooms for lockers where the employees could stash their belongings for the day and even a few storage rooms where trusted employees put old props or equipment into hiding for a later use. Employees were trusted to keep their breaks secluded in the halls and thus one of the rooms had been put aside as a breakroom with tables, chairs, a television set, and a ‘borrowed’ coffeemaker. Someone with a sense of humor had put a pair of googly eyes on the coffeemaker and given it popsicle stick arms and legs.

The tall robot herself had been to the mysterious back ways during her night time wanderings. She did stop going to Parts and Services after the night she had accidently spooked Amelia. That night had not only warned her of Delilah but it also made her not want to scare any other human beings. Despite the escapades of earlier that week, she had taken an oath.

Today, everyone’s attention was on the amazing birthday party. No one had any doubts that the day was going to go sour or that anything was going to go wrong. Everyone would have a wonderful time. No one was going to cry. No one was going to get hurt. Any security guard would instantly rush to the trouble but Ti Gold was going straight for it before it would dare make a move.

After all, the safety of the children was their number one priority.

No human being could stand in the way of an angry Fazbear Entertainment robot.

She had just finished crossing the entrance hall when she came to a fork in the road. Ti Gold shut her optics to focus her attention of the sounds of the building. There was the great party happening only twenty feet away, where Ti Gold could easily rush too in three great strides if need be. Then there were the vents, pouring out bucket loads of fresh, cool air. The rush of pipes for cold and hot hot water for both the kitchen and the restrooms.

There!

Her optics snapped open at the sound of heavy feet rushing through the halls. She turned towards the left and followed the sound.

Only one kind of person made such careless step- a playful child!

“Hello?” Ti Gold called out. “Don’t be afraid, you’re not in trouble. I can take you back to the cafeteria.”

The kid only scampered further away.

Ti Gold rounded the corner and peeked out in time to see white legs with slip on shoes go out of sight. She frowned.

“Are you okay? It’s not safe to be back here.”

She decided to take a more cautious approach towards the little girl.

“Listen, there’s a birthday party going on and I’m performing. Would you like to come out and see it? There’s cake, a nice birthday girl who would love to meet you, and my good friend who’s also performing.”

The girl only scampered to Ti Gold’s left.

“Please don’t be afraid. My name is Titan, I’m one of the singers on stage, my good friend is Obelisk, she’s the other singer. We’re harmless.”

The steps disappeared.

Ti Gold also stopped to looked around, “Where did you go?”

The girl’s steps escaped behind her.

She instantly turned around in shock and exclaimed, “Wait! Are you sure you know where you are going?”

They only grew further and further away.

Ti Gold raced after them, “It’s okay! Look, you can call me Ti Gold. That’s my name backstage. Obelisk’s name is actually Ob Gold. We don’t mind getting to meet new children. You can come out and we can show you around.”

The girl escaped to Ti Gold’s left and headed further away from the cafeteria.

“You’re going the wrong way! If you want to get to the cafeteria and stage area then you should have made a right, I have to get back out there soon and introduce myself to the birthday girl.”

Soon she was by the back exit, a place for Ti Gold had never ventured out as far. The tall robot stopped and rubbed her wrists- a nervous habit she had picked up from Amelia.

“Listen, I haven’t gone this far in the building. Can we please head towards the front? I’m…”

Scared.

At this point in the building there were no sounds, no whirring of the security cameras, only a dull hum of what was going on near the front and a faint whoosh of the AC system as air gathered around her ankles. It gave Ti Gold the feeling of abandonment, of lonlieness.

She spoke out in a low voice, “Where did you go?”

There were faint steps behind her but she thought of it as only an employee. The steps then rushed at her at the same density as before and Ti Gold slowly turned around to meet the child she had been chasing.

WHAM

A massive force hit her face and she went toppling over on the floor. Ti Gold had never actually felt pain before, but as bit and pieces of her face flung off of her she gave a not-so subtle shriek that sounded like a fox getting its tail ripped off.

A few ends from her fingers also took a trip to the floor as they clinked against the shiny tiles and her ankles twisted, the wiring inside of them popping lose and rendering her feet useless. The right part of her jaw was unhinged and her nose was crooked, her whole face feeling like it was on fire.

“Well, well, well,” a sickly sweet voice was all that Ti Gold could make out as her optics stared up, trying to will the ceiling to stop spinning.

She blinked once before training her eyes in the direction of the voice.

“Christian’s drugged, he won’t be waking up anytime soon,” there was a grinding noise, as if something was being dragged against the polished floor.

A pointed face leered into Ti Gold’s view, “Looks like it’s just going to be us two for a while.”

Her optics adjusted and instantly she recognized Delilah’s gnarly face before her vision adjusted her image to be doused in purple. Was it just her or were Delilah’s teeth more yellow than before?

Delilah began gathering the bits of Ti Gold from the floor and put them into her front pocket before slinging a sledgehammer over her shoulder. She smirked, “This is going to be so much fun!”

Ti Gold began resetting her vocalizer since it had been jimmied from its place due to the crash. Her voice box could only produce static as it searched for a source to unscramble the signals from her processor.

The evil guard only laughed, “Trying to cry out for your girlfriend? Don’t worry, she’s just on the other side of the building.”

She stepped to the side and gestured for Ti Gold to stand up, “Well go on, she’s probably getting worried thinking about where you might be right now.”

Ti Gold couldn’t get up; her processor was scrambling for the commands for her legs to move or to just get out of there!

Delilah leaned back up against Ti Gold’s face, “Don’t wanna? Rather stay with me? That’s fine.”

She stood back up and went around to Ti Gold’s nonmoving legs to use her free hand in order to lift one of them and begin to drag her towards another section of the building.

“I have plans,” began Delilah. “You’re an essential part to them. I can’t afford for you to go heading off now before my plans can be complete.”

At this point, Ti Gold decided to squint one eye in Delilah’s direction and shrill louder than she had ever done before.

It wasn’t long before they made it to the Parts and Services room as Ti Gold’s leg was dropped and Delilah made to shut the doors.

Ti Gold was wracking her processor for a way out of this situation when Delilah peered at her face again, “Let’s get started, shall we?”

That was when her image flickered in and out of existence before reappearing as a deep purple monster with a sickening grin, black and purple eyes, sharp claws, and four extra appendages on her back.

This was the worst day of Ti Gold’s life.


	3. Burning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are worse dangers than Delilah and scary thoughts that plague Ti Gold. It’s all over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to put working on this aside for a while since I was busy working on my finals for the my second semester. There’s gore and death in this chapter and not a lot of dialogue at the end.

 Delilah, evil, ruddy, terrible, dangerous, impure Delilah sat in the wheeled chair that was stationed in front of the workdesk of Parts and Services. That desk wasn’t really used to fix robots but rather small pieces or furniture or for when a new sketch had to be made for blueprints. Ti Gold had once seen such good drawings and had decided to hone her skills until she was as good as an adult human.

 For now, that desk housed a very untasteful villain who was leaning back with their feet kicked up.

 Ti Gold wanted to shrill louder but was incapable of doing so.

 The purple guard only chucked and positioned themselves so that they were sitting right across from their find, “My guess is that you’re screaming all known obsceneness at me. Looks like only the signals that you send to your voicebox are coming through though, so it’s just static to my ears.”

 ‘Yeah, mine too,’ thought the golden robot, with a roll of her only working eye.

 Delilah actually burst out laughing at that, “Scream all you want, but I’m not afraid that no one’s going to find you.”

 She stood up and picked up a small wrench that was used for delicate screws, “It’s time I got down to business, since we only have a couple of hours until closing.”

 The guard sank down next to Ti Gold’s massive head and brought one knee up to brace herself as she set to work unscrewing her exosuit’s head from its neck. At that, Ti Gold squinted her endoskeleton’s eyes in anger and clamped her inner jaw open and closed in anger, ‘Back OFF!’

 Delilah actually flinched in surprise before getting back to work and mumbling, “Better stay away from that jaw.”

 She wriggled the short-haired head free from its owner after a few minutes and Ti Gold began to thrash her head from side to side.

 “QUIT IT!” one hand grasped a rung before the robot’s head and Ti Gold does her best to get her off before Delilah clips a green wire and then pushes a metallic button down for a few seconds.

 CLUNK

 Ti Gold’s silver eyelids retract into her head as all motor functions have gone offline. Her eyes dashed madly around the room as she desperately tried to move.

 “Can’t let you move about just yet,” she then proceeded to remove the neck area and to untie and unbutton Ti Gold’s clothing.

 Once the clothing was removed more of the endoskeleton was revealed. There was little of the exosuit despite the layered clothing, easily exposing wires that ran up and down the thin steel that kept the arms and legs attached and that clung to the joints. A mess of wires was gathered near each wrist and at the hips.

 Delilah continued to talk as she brought out a screwdriver to take out a few of the larger bolts, “I know that you are more than a pile of data put together to perform for snot-nosed bastards, okay. Let’s be honest, you and your girlfriend were meant for so much more. I read the files about what kind of AI the two of you have- pretty fascinating if I do say so myself.”

 She had moved the clothes off to the side and had finished unhooking the arms from the chest so the outer arms could slide right off before she moved onto where the legs connected to the hips, “I wonder what it was like to feel so dumb and emotionless as the world just passed you by- kind of like a baby almost. You must have grown so curious that you decided to make a few nightly rounds and ended up scaring poor, clingy, little Amelia.”

 If Ti Gold had learned what hate, love, excitement, embarrassment, and other emotions then that meant that she could learn others as well. Her processor went into overdrive at the barrel of emotions that had swept her over as soon as she had hit the floor earlier; fright, betrayal, panic, misery, dread, disappointment, rage, frustration, and one that struck her worst of all.

 Fear.

 It sliced through her wiring with such coldness that it made her want to stay away from the AC for the rest of her life. She grew worried and scared at the probable future that loomed over her as more time passed between her and Delilah. Dark thoughts clouded her mind at what Delilah was planning and at what her fate might be if she were to continue to stand to the side.

 Delilah finished her work and slowly pulled the outer legs off, “There’s we go.”

 She then spoke in a language that Ti Gold was not equipped with and stood up to drag the large robot away by the thick rods that made up her shoulders, cursing a bit at the scratching noises she made.

Ti Gold had to get up and get out! It might have been prude to go out naked as an endoskeleton but it had to be done!

Unfortunately, the wires that connected her harddrive to her motor functions had been pulled and reset. She wasn’t going to be getting up anytime soon unless the switch near the back of her head was flipped back to its original settings.

Ti Gold didn’t know how her body worked, of course, so she was just forced to sit around and wait until she felt the commands and queries light up inside of her. She was only a few months old after all!

Delilah worked on the arms and shaking off the thin rods that were supposed to keep the clothes away and give the illusion that Ti Gold had more volume. She hastily detached them and started to work on the delicate hands, “Listen, I’m not doing this because of you, this is just for me. Sure I could have beaten your friend and taken her outer shell-“

Ti Gold immediately did the robotic version of growling in her head at the mention of such an act.

“-but hey, you were the one who went snooping around and gave me such distasteful looks so I knew it would have been easier to lure you here. Obelisk’s build and clothing would have been better but I guess I’ll be able to manage.”

 Manage. Manage what? Why would Ob Gold’s body would have worked for her? What was really going on?

 She got the tiny screws loose and proceeded to slide off the ovular orbs that made up Ti Gold’s fingers. They came off easily and revealed the long, thin fingers with smooth ends.

 The purple guard hummed in thought, “I was hoping your fingers would be sharpened. Heh. Imagining your sharp claws digging into those annoying kids that adore you so much really gets me going.

 Hurting kids? NEVER!

 She had to get out of here NOW.

 Delilah finally stripped her naked and pulled her up by the rungs in her chest that resembled a ribcage, “Of course your endoskeleton would be smaller than what you were made to perceive. That top hat does make you look taller. You’re just an average sized human hiding in a big suit…as a robot, I mean.”

 Ti Gold didn’t get it but she was more focused on how disgusting Delilah was at this new angle.

 Delilah only just put her against the wall into a leaning position. Ti Gold’s eyes swiveled to look down in disgust at her.

 “Now all you have to do is just sit there as I put on your outer shell and leave to cause a little…mayhem. Not the cutesy mayhem you may be accustomed to…oh you probably don’t know what death is, huh?”

 Death?

 She stopped what she was doing and approached Ti Gold once again. “As a robot you may not have a similar end to us humans, since we are just brains piloting around a slab of meat while you are only a pile of code written up onto a large flashdrive walking around with metal coils.”

 Delilah rubbed her chin and removed her hat, “Tell me, do you know how you get fresh peperoni or anchovies on your pizza?”

 Ti Gold honestly didn’t know and wouldn’t even retort if she could talk.

 “Those toppings used to be animals until people killed them. That’s what people do- kill. Once something is killed it is dead.”

 ‘Humans…animals can be eaten?’ Ti Gold blinked.

 “If something dies, they can’t come back. Taking away something’s life has always been a pleasure of mine since my younger years at Sumchon’s butcher shop.”

 Delilah set her hat down before putting on Ti Gold’s own and bending down to search through her large purse before producing a large blade meant for cutting large hunks of flesh. She caressed the blade like a mother stroking their child’s soft head with a wicked smile on her face.

 The guard turned back to Ti Gold, “In short, I like killing. Nothing is better to me. Taking away tiny, innocent lives is just, how you westerners would say, ‘the cream of the crop’ you know? Cutting a small so’s neck and watching the light drain from its eyes, priceless.”

 Ti Gold would be feeling sick if she knew the feeling, but instead she had the overwhelming urge to punch Delilah right in her stupid, fucking, no-good, terrible face. Her one job to protect the children and instead of listening to her basic coding she gets blinded by love for Ob Gold.

 No, she didn’t regret falling for her partner, but in the long run she should have exposed and dispensed of Delilah first instead of trying to appeal to her good side.

 Oh the terrible downsides of getting your metaphoric heart impaled by cupid’s arrow…or getting smashed in the head with a sledgehammer by your mortal enemy.

 Delilah set her knife onto the workbench and began to pick up pieces of Ti Gold’s exosuit before putting them on herself, “It was fun, near the end when I got to beat you up and humiliate you. Everything else, I just really wanted to die from that torture. After all, what other event could I have used in order to get close to small children? Not clowns, everyone has their eyes on them. But you two-“

 She finished putting on Ti Gold’s head and turned to the unmoving endoskeleton in the corner.

 “-no one would ever expect a trusted employee to disguise themselves as one of the robots.”

 Ti Gold didn’t know if it was the shock or gravity that caused her back to fall to the floor and sweep her legs from under her.

 Delilah just laughed as she put the finishing touches on her stolen outfit, “That’s right. Lay there and experience a feeling worse than death-paralyzed and not being able to do anything.”

 She turned towards the door, “Once I kill those little pests and stir up some chaos, I’ll destroy your lovely stage partner and lay the blame on you.”

 Kill the children, make her home go out of business, and destroy Ob Gold?

 Destroy everything Ti Gold loved?

 Delilah was going to launch such a villainous plan just for fun?

 Something clicked in her CPU and made her back arch, unnoticed by the purple fiend. She recognized the returned commands of her motor functions. Shakily, with the loss of her heavy plastic, fabrics, wires, and metals, she got onto her own two feet and arched her eyes in rage.

 One step forward, towards the dangerous foe.

 Another step, she had to make sure Deliah couldn’t get away!

 A third step, she wouldn’t allow for anything to happen to the children!

 One final step, for Ob Gold.

 Before Delilah could exit the room or take a single step out, Ti Gold, in all of her horrid endoskeleton glory, grabbed her by the scruff of the loose tuxedo and pulled her back inside. The door slammed shut and locked itself shut from the outside.

 Delilah was thrown to the other side of the room, hat and fake head falling off as she hit the metal shelf holding boxes full of extra cables for the stage. Her eyes wide in fright and disbelief as Ti Gold’s dress shirt and tux slid off one shoulder.

 Ti Gold immediately stormed back over to the shelf as her golden irises glowed red. Bearing over her wretched enemy she roared into the terrible guard’s face.

 Delilah’s ‘borrowed’ pants fell down.

 The lean endoskeleton grabbed Delilah’s shoulders and threw her to her right and against the wall. Delilah’s head hit the brick and she slid down rather clumsily, vision blurry and blood protruding from her nose.

 She looked up in tome to see a very angry Ti Gold pull her away from the wall and towards the center of the floor.

 There the once-dapper robot brought her heel down upon the fiend and roared again. The Korean immigrant felt something snap below her chest as she coughed up a bundle of blood.

 “You!” another metallic heel was brought down upon her foe, but this time it landed on Delilah’s pelvic region.

 CRACK

 Delilah cried out but the blood in her throat made it sound like a gurgle. The unbearable pain of her pelvis shattering was beginning to make her lose consciousness. If only she could get back up and grab a weapon-!

 Ti Gold fell to her knees on top of her and screamed, “Why does this bring you joy?”

 She balled her slim fingers into a fist and threw it at Delilah’s left cheek.

 CRACK

 Blood was drawn, her jaw crushed, teeth dislodged from gums.

 “Does this really make you happy?”

 Another punch thrown went straight for Delilah’s right eye.

 SPLURT

 The right side of her face shattered upon impact as blood and bone fragments flew from her cut and her eye was squished from her skull compressing it.

 “Where is the joy, Delilah?”

 Two more punches went down, causing more bodily harm.

 “What is the purpose of this?”

 Four more punches.

 “I feel no joy from this!”

 Punch. Punch.

 “Do you feel any joy from this?”

 Delilah’s remaining eye rolled to the top of what remained of her skull.

 “Answer me!”

 She couldn’t. What was once what resembled Delilah (Geomi) Changjo was now a bloody pulp from the waist up. Her skull was smashed with bone fragments and brain matter flowing out of her wounds. The neck was punctured and pieces of both of the esophagus and trachea were torn out. Hair was torn and chunks of skin clung to the ends of the long strands. Collar bones snapped and sticking out of the bloodstained skin at odd angles. Rib cage crushed from Ti Gold’s weight. Deep gashes laid upon her upper chest area. Jaw split and torn into three large segments.

 Ti Gold shook what was left of her shoulders, “Answer me!”

 Delilah’s now dead form slumped back and made a WHUMP noise against the wet tiles.

 Recognition lit up in her eyes as her irises changed from red to yellow. The white and yellow solid rods and chunks reminded her of her own silver and grey exoskeleton. Skin that was floppy and wet and not like the hard plastic of her exosuit. Red flesh exposed and strung like askew cables.

 Delilah had been so badly torn apart that she had been deactivated.

 Ti Gold stood back up and took a few steps back. She had killed Delilah with her literal bare hands.

 The blood splattered robot let out a shrill whine that went on for minutes on end.

 During Ti Gold’s abduction, or just as the sledgehammer had hit her face, Ob Gold was giving her birthday wishes to the birthday child. Casey liked parading her around and trying to share birthday cake despite their disappointment in Ti Gold not being able to make it.

 Ob Gold was very disappointed in her partner not being able to make it and instead going after an imaginary threat.

 She instead bore a fake smile and helped Casey into their large plastic chair so they could unwrap presents.

 A cable near the ceiling at the stage set groaned as some of the pressure from the heavy and toxic lighting was moved. The box full of different colored lightbulbs that were trained on the stage shifted towards the backstage area and tiny pieces of wood and rust crumbled towards the floor.

 Christian, who was working backstage looked up at the sounds of discomfort and grunted.

 The cable was hanging onto its support that held it to the ceiling by a thin thread.

 His eyes widened in realization as sweat began to form on his temples, “Oh shi-“

 The thread snapped, causing the cable to slip out of its support and fling the lightbox towards the control panel where Christian stood.

 CRASH

 A great impact was made as the two stage instruments made contact. The two exploded into a round of fireworks and crushed machinery that took place where Christian once was before he dove to the side.

 The crowd screamed and employees panicked at the recent events. Amelia pressed the security button under the counter as Christian shakily got up and coughed before the stings of his scratches reminded him what just happened. Stephan ran to get the guests who were near the stage out of harm’s way as Eric watched from the cameras and got the fire department on the line.

 Seeing as it was an electrical incident, Christian ran for the nearest fire extinguisher.

 After the first ten seconds of the incident the curtains caught on fire.

 There were gasps from the crowd as Amelia screamed in fright and cowered in fear.

 Stephan only rushed the crowd away as the fire on the curtains climbed and grew in size.

 Eric’s attention went to the ceiling to search for any sprinklers but found none. Cursing for the crappy funding the company used he rushed out of his shared office and made a b-line for the fire alarm.

 Soon enough panic had engulfed the guests as they ran for the nearest exits, pushing against one another in a desperate attempt to escape the flames.

 Ob Gold was standing still in the confusion of it all. Fire was obviously bad and the safety of the children was first but where did that leave her?

 She scanned the terrified crowd and knew what she had to do: Escape.

 Putting one foot in front of the other, Ob Gold immediately followed after the crowd to take care of any stragglers. She had to job to do, burning building or not.

 Flames leapt off the stage on onto the greasy tables, igniting the west side of the building. The ceiling crumbled and bits and bars from above fell to the stained floor. Walls groaned from the pressure of the burning building and heated gases. Everything was quickly falling down in ruin as Ob Gold was about to exit the building.

 “Help!” a whimper sounded out from the other side of the room.

 The golden robot stopped and swiftly turned around to face the quickly burning room.

 “Help me!”

 It was a child’s voice!

 She immediately headed towards the source near the backrooms. Ob Gold nearly tripped over a metal rod that had fallen from the ceiling on the way over to a still-standing table, where she bent herself over to look under.

 Her soot-covered face may have given her a decent disguise to look more human but the LEDs behind her plastic eyes only made her look demonic. She peered at the kid and blinked in recognition.

 The kid was a part of Casey’s party. What was their name? Nathaniel? David? Michael? Sammy?

 Richard!

 Ob Gold held out a hand to the scared boy who was currently in a fetal position. The kid looked at her with frightened eyes as she got down on her knees.

 “C’mon Richard, we need to get out of here,” she softly spoke as the kid coughed.

 “Your mother must be worried sick,” Richard was able to crawl towards her rather weakly.

 Now out in the open, Richard was too weak and coughing much too hard in order to walk so Ob Gold quickly picked Richard up, bridal style, and headed towards the exit.

 She had to walk slowly in order to carefully side step the licking flames. Her long skirt caught on fire and she had to rub up against a wall to smother out the blaze.

 A few more steps and her own hair caught on fire from sparks that had rained down from the ceiling. She had arched her back over Richard to protect him as he violently coughed up a few specks of red liquid.

 Half way through to the door a hot metal beam came crashing down on top of her. Ob Gold was forced onto her front with Richard clutched close to her chest. She heard a few crunches noises from both above and below her and couldn’t make out where they were coming from.

 The burnt entertainment robot slid herself with one arm out of the rubble and got back to her legs. When moving her left arm back into position to hold the silent kid. It moved oddly and make creaking sounds.

 SPROING

 A few springs came loose and the cable that was used to keep her upper and lower arm together unbundled itself. Her lower arm clatter to the floor as the fingers twitched. Ob Gold shrugged it off and held the boy with one arm, making the way back towards the entrance with their left arm dragging behind him.

 It didn’t take long for a gas line to implode and melt her face. She turned Richard away from the heat and continued forward.

 Only twenty steps left…she could make it with Richard in towe.

 Fifteen steps…her arm was heavy and Richard was silent.

 Ten steps…had she noticed that her legs were on fire?

 Five steps…bits of her face were falling off and fragments of her metal endoskeleton were falling behind her.

 There, the entrance, she pushed the door open wider. A crowd of people met her glassy gaze as she made it to the edge of the crowd and collapsed onto her knees.

 The humans gasped as she set Richard down in front of her and loads of supporting bolts and screws fell out of her right arm. Her plastic skin was burnt and there were holes all over her. Hair askew, burnt at the edges, and yellowing from the heat.

 A group of oddly clothed humanoids pushed past the crowd and two of them brought out a cylinder each before spraying her with a mysterious white substance and forcing her down on the concrete.

 An odd sound escape from her burnt voice box as scraps of her clothing and fake skin fell off of her and she was forced to lay down. Blue and white dressed humans appeared and surrounded Richard and there were a few cries from the crowd as they tried to break towards the doctors.

 Ob Gold’s eyes focused on the ring of humans around Richard. One of them looked to an elderly man with a stethoscope, “Time?”

 The man checked the metallic watch around his wrist, “Time of Death: six forty-six Post Meridian. Name?”

 Ob Gold’s weak jaw mumbled, “Richard…” but no one around her heard it.

 Richard’s mom appeared from the crowd and shouted out his name, onlookers parting for her to make it to her silent son. She wept over his corpse as the doctors tried to pull her away.

 Soon Ob Gold’s emergency shut down was activated after Christian stepped behind her and pressed the reset switch in the back of her burnt neck. One last thought was sent to her AI-

 Failure.

 Back to when Ob Gold was carrying the dying Richard out of the restaurant, Ti Gold was slamming her bare fists onto the locked door.

 “Come on!” she yelled and slammed onto the door once more more looking at her blood-stained fists in frustration.

 She had stopped Delilah, taken her life, and now she was locked inside of this small space without her exosuit? Not only that but apparently the building around her was catching on fire and heating up.

 Ti Gold wouldn’t be able to escape and would either face terminal shut down or serious damage that would force her to be sent to storage. Then there was the embarrassing fallout of unprofessionalism on her part of being found naked.

 What to do? What to do!

 At least Ob Gold was safe…at least the children were safe…at least the patrons were safe…at least the employees were safe…

 A dark shadow materialized behind her and stared at her back with glowing white eyes squinted in thought.

 Everyone, let’s take a moment to meet this ghost.

 This ghost is the collected memory of the young child that was once known as…you know what, that doesn’t matter. The young ghost girl used to live across the street before her own apartment burned down and was rebuilt. Her hope for her father to return and find her was what kept her existence from fading away so she could come back as a ghost.

 She was unable to move away from her previous home’s location for so long out of fear, but once the pizzeria across the street opened up she decided to have a gander and immediately fell in love. The lonely ghost moved out of her past home and decided to live here. She was able to be a kid again after three years and was out of sight for so long before the incidents that took place this very night.

 After only being around for about eight years, she knew she had a job to do before the building burned down. This time she couldn’t just sit and wait for her father to arrive.

 She floated off of the ground and approached Ti Gold as the robot just stared at the door and tried to think of a solution. The ghost stretched their tiny arms out and brought them around Ti Gold’s back into a hug.

 The metal endoskeleton choked and felt an agonizing pressure on her back that made her envision the Earth being crushed by the immense force of gravity. There was a little girl’s giggling that sounded behind her.

 Darkness seeped into every crack of Ti Gold and spread along her outer plating. Her optics twitched and dimmed into they were obsidian orbs. Part of the darkness moved over Delilah and patted the stolen clothing she wore. A thin, spindly arm moved across the floor and picked up her beloved top hat (free of blood, thank goodness) and brought it back to rest upon the top of Ti Gold’s head.

 The darkness grew, expanded, and became thicker and thicker until the ghost seemed all the way into Ti Gold’s body and the flames ate the room.

 The newspapers and news stations the next morning all read the same thing the next morning: ‘LOCAL PIZZERIA BURNED TO THE GROUND’ ‘CURSED ANIMATRONIC BUISNESS STRIKES AGAIN’ ‘NO REST FOR FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT AS ITS SUCCESS BURNS AGAIN’

 Pictures of Richard were printed or shown with loving testimonies, mentions of the missing employee Delilah were displayed, images of the burnt building that was now smoldering lightly were placed as background images, and the talk of have the robot Obelisk had pulled Richard’s body from the building was what everyone had currently on their tongue.

 The manager was brought to a conference and was found in bed with two prostitutes, leaving him to go to court and found that he was guilty of, instead paying money for sprinklers and safer equipment, but for the payment of his own means. He was sentenced to serve time and sued by at least five different families, Richard’s included.

 Current employees were given the opportunity to either work at another Fazbear location or to take their last check and go. Only Ethan decided to try working at the Houston location as everyone else went their separate ways. Amelia went back to her family, having witnessed too much of the outside world and wanting the calm, controlling life of the Amish way back in her grasp. Christian was offered a job in the northwest and became a professor a few weeks after. Eric decided to work the nightshift at a nearby mall and wound up moving eastward in another year. Stephan moved back in with his mother to be with her since her Alzheimer’s was getting worse.

 There was no hope for another location with humanoid animatronics. After the burning there were only scared ‘what ifs’ and frightened conspiracy theories as to what Fazbear entertainment had in store for next. Soon a bunch of separate locations in the states would close down and a few would remain open and renovate to make way for the future nineties generation.

 Yet there was one unanswered question: Where had Delilah had gone?

 Not knowing what had happened in the backrooms, the police had found no evidence of Delilah being at the site of the fire. It was as if she had mysteriously disappeared once panic had erupted. Maybe she had run off and had never looked back as everyone else had ran for the front entrance.

 Then there was the notation of the missing robot known as Titan. What they had found in the Parts and Services room as a burnt husk of Titan’s endoskeleton and a once sharpened butcher’s knife that was bent and crispy. The endoskeleton was put into Fazbear storage along with the lifeless and singed body of Ob Gold.

 Soon more theories arose. Did Delilah lure Titan into the backrooms? Did Titan have a mechanical meltdown before meeting the birthday kid and Delilah decided to take Titan to Parts and Services?

 Then the question of where were Titan’s clothes and other outer wear. Did Delilah take them? Did Delilah take them off to work on Titan but ran off when the fire started, causing them to be eaten by the hungry flames? Did Delilah decide to disguise herself as Titan and dash off into the night?

 No one would the truth.

 There was a time when the chaos had died down, a little after the incident, when no one was around and the sun had finished rising over the horizon. A very familiar figure stood in front of a weathered tree stump outside of the building with three plushes in their arms.

 Ti Gold stood with a yellowed Obelisk doll, a rather still neat Titan doll, and the remains of the monochrome sock monkey in her grasp.

 She looked the same as she did on stage, plus a few new additions. Now both her legs and feet were the same midnight black and blended together like a tall pillar, making it hard to tell if she really did have two separate legs. The tips of her tux and fingers were burnt, but not from an injury or an open flame but rather for effect. Her hair was no longer horrendously cut short but was longer than ever, flowing down to halfway down her back and burnt at the tips. Every crevice that she used to have that would show her metal bones was now inky black as if she were a void wearing clothes and plastic skin. There was makeup on her face as well, tar-like lipstick and smoky winged tips made her eyes and mouth pop out more.

 Of course, her form was only an illusion since the child’s ghost had merged with her to make sure that Ti Gold would live. The only true output was the dapper hat that was perched on her golden head.

 The complications of such an action exceed any expectations one would have of an AI actually obtaining a mortal form and truly ‘live’ a life. In short, Ti Gold was the ghost of a robot being hosted by a small child’s ghost that slept within her shell.

 It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 She set the Obelisk plush on top of the stump, her eyelids lowered and heavy with sadness. The same word repeated in each eye socket with bold white lettering.

 ‘WHY?’

 She had blended into the darkness of the nearby TV store and heard all about what had happened there. Ob Gold was gone and any hope of a continued existence of a fun and friendly entertainer had been thrown out the window by an Olympic pole vaulter.

 Her life was over.

 Yet the girl had chosen her to live.

 She balled her empty hand into a fist as she remembered what Delilah had planned and what the TVs had said. Oh how she wanted to come out and say how Delilah was a murder. If Ob Gold had just listened to her, if she had just knew there was an error in her programming. Maybe things would have been turned all the way around and the two of them would be still standing on their own stage and singing their favorite songs.

 “Perhaps some things are best left forgotten,” she finally said as she straitened her figure. It wasn’t the best she could say but maybe it was best for now.

 What was a human supposed to do once they lost a job?

 Ti Gold looked to the side and tried to think. Perhaps they looked for another one?

 Perhaps she could find another Ob Gold- said a terrible voice in the back of her head.

 No. Somethings could not be replaced.

 She set the Titan doll next to the Obelisk one and positioned them so that they could look like they were holding hands.

 Titan deposited the remains of the last plush under the stump and took a step back to take in the blackened head and singed arm that was once a cute friend that would never talk to any living soul.

 “I’m sorry,” Ti Gold looked up to the sky. “I don’t know why I’m sorry but I’ve been feeling some bad things as of late.”

 Guilt. Devastation. Loss. Isolation. Hurt. Depression.

 “People talk out loud when they think they’re alone so they can reflect on their thoughts, so I thought I should do as well.”

 Ti Gold looked back down at the stump, “This is not what I wanted. My job was to protect the children and make sure everyone had fun. I was swept off my my own AI and lost myself to these beautiful emotions that I felt for you Ob. I don’t regret the love I feel for you, but I do regret how I expressed it.”

 A faint wind ruffled the pines and sycamores around the building and a few birds chirped.

 She bit her bottom lip, “I could list everything that went wrong before the fire and I wish I could change everything so that today would be perfect and we would be making the kids smile. Today I woke up and realized that any one thing that I could change could have prevented this. But no, life’s not like that.”

 Ti Gold felt something hot gather at the corner of her eyes as her plastic face squished up in an expression of pain, “I thought life was beautiful and even more glorious once you found something that made you want to stay awake on hours at end, despite us not being able to truly sleep. Life gives you so much and then it takes from you, then gives you little in return. It forces you to call yourself up to action but when you can’t the results can be atrocious.”

 She felt the heat roll down her face, inky black tears fell like teardrops, “I’m only a fool and everything’s my fault. Nothing really does matter. Humans will die, us machines will be permanently shut down, buildings will burn. Everything comes to an end. Now all I have left is to wonder what I am since I have surpassed it all.”

 The eyes of her own doll, or what resembled what her eyes used to look like, blankly looked up towards the sky, “I’m here now and Delilah is gone, you are gone, our home is gone. I need time to think and to learn, to know everything I can about myself and to make sure another tragedy at my home can never happen once again.”

 Streetlights flickered off as the first morning drivers took to the streets, “This girl inside of me is scared and we are both young, we don’t know a lot. So if I went off on my own and came back knowing so much then maybe I could be able to fix something. I want to actually live a life with you, even though I know that cannot happen anymore.”

 Ti Gold rubbed her face and stepped back, “That’s why I have to go. I love you Ob Gold, you were literally my other half. Now I have to find out who I am without you.”

 She took one last look at the makeshift grave before turning around and walking away from the building. The ghost marched into the forest and held fast to her feelings before she disappeared into the darkness.

 The golden days were truly over.

 In the next few hours a gang of teenagers would come around and take the plushes and one would take the golden pair home. Over the years the two dolls would gather dust until the now-adult would find them, around twenty years later, and sell them at a garage sale where a red-haired child would find them and ask their parents to buy them. The mother would oddly look at the dolls before pulling out the exact amount of bills in order to buy them. Those dolls would then go to a loving home with the young child.

 But that is a story for another day.

 Time moved on. As soon as the police gathered enough evidence and what could be salvaged by Fazbear Entertainment was brought into storage the building was torn down and the ground refurnished. A new shopping center was put in its place, devoid of pizza.

 Fazbear Entertainment then suffered another loss as a child at one of their most well-known locations was shoved into the mouth of the famous Fredbear and had his skull crushed. This was dubbed the ‘Bite of 87’ and Fazbear lost almost all of their integrity and funding.

 Circus Baby’s Pizza World was to be closed down due to gas leaks and more rumors spread and employees started to mysteriously disappear during their job hours. This only proceeded to create more financial chaos as it left only one location open.

 Good old Houston, Texas was left in working order, or was at least open for business. Though the janitors never really did clean up all the messes, the cooks only served the pizza half-baked, and the animatronics leaked and broke down all the time, it was open for business. There was always an ad in the paper for an opening for their nightguard.

 Then more disappearances kept on reoccurring.

 No matter how low the pay, how terrible the security, or what little laws they could use to protect themselves, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria was open for business.

 Thenceforth there was the faithful day where the storage of the early eighties of Fazbear Entertainment was open and dust came flying out. An intern who was working for the winter of twenty thirteen for the small entertainment business had been dispersed to fetch some old files was busy coughing up a moth that had flown into his throat.

 After five minutes of gagging, he stood back up and looked around. Most of the props and furniture stored had decayed and yellowed over the years and looked less than flattering for the twenty first century. Sure, the retro style had made a comeback but no one would dare look twice at the junk in this container.

 He sauntered forward, scratching his back lightly, until he came upon what he was looking for: the only file cabinet in the whole god damn storage container. Licking his lips, he quickly pulled out the ring of keys and unlocked the cabinet with the designated key.

 After five minutes of searching he bravely pulled out the fat wad of papers that had miraculously stayed in mint condition and relocked the drawer before turning around to leave.

 He almost ran into the giant metal and cloth robot.

 Letting out an ear-splitting scream, the intern jumped backwards and barreled back into the cabinet. The cabinet fell and he followed, turning around he saw another giant robot but this one had no cover on. He screamed again but this time someone came.

 And nothing was the same again.

 Eventually the two found more out about the two burnt robots who were taking up residence in the old storage container and found out about the experimental project with humanoid animatronics. This reinvention of the idea was brought up to the company’s head and he himself was intrigued. Perhaps this was what could save them from bankruptcy!

 But did they need human replicas of their current anthromorphic characters? No. That wouldn’t attract a crowd, much less make people excited.

 Then an evil idea was tossed- Why not get the new characters based off of real people? That way people will be throwing money at them to build them!

 He gave his two interns a week to bring a list of recently deceased to his front desk or else they would be getting bad recommendations. A list of fifteen of provided, plus three in intensive care.

 Models were then designed and within a month they had created a campaign to show that they were interested in memorializing the children whom had recently died.

 Money from families, friends, and rich couples who could easily cry at any sappy story came in and soon they had enough to fund for a new set of twenty robots. They commissioned different engineering and robotics companies to help and a plot of land was set up secretly in New Hampshire.

 The first models were sent to the original Texan company that produced their Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, and Chica the Chicken models, the second models were sent over to where the eighties generation had been sculpted, the third set was sent to the company in Florida that was interested in renovating old animatronics, a matching duo was given to a couple in Iceland who worked intensively with boats, a smaller model went into the hands of an old employee who had worked on the original prototype of Balloon Boy, and three were given to a woman on the Mexican border who wanted in on the action.

 A few months into the New Year and one of the kids in intensive care had lived while her brothers had died. This made the higher ups at Fazbear Entertainment pull the plug on the ‘three cat siblings’ project and the woman they had commissioned had gotten very upset as they had taken the blueprints and what she had worked on away to storage.

 This did give them a hitch in their project, since they were one robotic attraction short. They needed to fix this soon or else they would open late and their funding could fall short.

 Thankfully, an obituary in Texas was able to provide the sad death of a high schooler that hung themselves. This not only gave them a new subject but a new idea for the project.

 Immediately, they dug out the old blueprints for their Puppet and found an old exosuit that was five sizes too small for their life sized model. They ushered in a call to a small French business and commissioned them to build the last and final model.

 Everything then came together, all was left were the actual discs needed for their robots to compute and follow in order to work.

 After assembling what they could, they decided on simple AIs to start them for the test audiences. The first models would get medium AIs that would allow them to address the crowd and keep the other robots in line. Their second batch was made to mimic their first batch and had lower intelligence. Then the third set was given a higher AI since they would be allowed to move about between rooms of the facility. Their duo was given an interactive AI that would make sure that the two would be able to hold conversations and keep a child’s attention for hours if need be. The tiny and puppet robots were given the most sophisticated AI in order to vendor to customers and remember names.

 Then the heartbreak of learning that the deceased children were going to be used as entertainment was leaked to the public by one of the interns. Both were fired and given bad reviews of course, but now the whole company was forced to move little by little to New Hampshire. Headquarters decided to root itself out in Texas to draw the crowd away from where the new restraint was but that didn’t stop the local press from finding out and posting angry articles online.

 Now, a few months away from opening, the New Hampshire location was silent. The dim lights in the building buzzed softly, wishing to be turned off so they could get some shut eye of their own.

 A soft tapping came from the darkness as a dark figure came out and stood underneath the light. Ti Gold had returned.

 She looked up at the light and turned it off before turning off the rest and sighing. After around thirty years she had learned so much, and yet the company had learned very little.

 Her attention then loomed over to sixteen lost souls that had hovered out of the darkness and towards her. Ti Gold’s eyes widened, were these the souls of the used children?

 The ghost floated around her, each sporting different injuries and faces downcast.

 “Who brought the tears to these kids?” she patted the head of a spiky haired ghost with bear claws on their right side. “Why were their souls evicted?”

 A ghost that was sleeping with rope marks around their neck accidently bumped into another ghost with five bullet holes in their chest.

 Ti Gold took notice of this and gently pushed the sleeping ghost away from the crowd, “Oh sweet baby what happened to you? Who hurt you so much?”

 The ghost with the bullet holes nudged her and Ti Gold set the sleeping ghost aside. Anger rose within her.

 “You’re right, you need to take back your lives and show the company that they are not allowed to mess with the dead.” A white dot appeared in each of her eyes. “I’ve had it with this enterprise and what it tries to sell to the public. It’s time we had our own little revenge.”

 She rose off of the floor and drew her hands in front of her, “Now go, take each vessel and show them that they shouldn’t have messed with the dearly departed.”

 The ghosts flew in separate directions as the blackness on Ti Gold’s hands, clothes, and hair grew until she was completely black minus the white dots she had for irises.

 She raised her hands up, “Let them know the true joy of creation!”


End file.
